PATIENTS
PATIENT STORIES
Aidel
Aidel suffered from the recurrent severe pain in her abdomen most of her life . She had chronic pancreatitis.
Eventually her whole pancreas needed to be surgically removed for a pain relief.
She recovered from pain but became fully diabetic requiring frequent insulin adjustments. Diabetes took over the control of her life. She struggled with blood glucose control despite her best efforts.
Being a responsible mother of two, she decided not to give up. She came to University of Chicago for islet transplantation and hoped for the freedom from insulin.
...and she made it , She is now insuin-free with HbA1c 5.4!
Congratulations Aidel!
After a lifetime of hereditary pancreas disease that culminated in a total pancreatectomy with a difficult recovery, Aidel was ready to pick up the pieces again and do the things she could never do when she was Ill. But diabetes type 3c arising from a TP is brittle and difficult to manage. Aidel experienced very frequent severe hypoglycemia with little awareness symptoms. To obtain some type of control required all her focus and attention, leaving room for little else.
"Brittle diabetes with frequent Hypoglycemia, dictated my days. All I wanted was to finally be a healthy mother to my girls and be allowed to pursue dreams and ambitions I had, that were impossible before with Pancreas disease. I felt discouraged, that perhaps good health was not in the cards for me, ever. But hope came in the form of islet cell transplantation. An incredible treatment option that has completely transformed my life as I knew it, and has the potential to transform hundreds of others, one Tx at a time.
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“Seeing medical teams from early childhood, I thought I knew what a good doctor means, but Dr Witkowski is indefatigable and together with nurse coordinators Lindsay and Laurencia, they take doctor- patient relationship to a whole new level, and they truly transcend “above and beyond their call of duty”. Together they walked this journey with me and I am so filled with joy that 2.5 months post TX I am completely off all exogenous insulin, have not experienced severe hypoglycemia, and proudly carry an a1c of 5.1"
