{"id":30145,"date":"2012-09-18T07:18:57","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T11:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=30145"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:47:22","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:47:22","slug":"the-other-side-of-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=30145","title":{"rendered":"The Other Side of Diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I\u2019ve had type one diabetes for 36 years, since I was 11. In that time I\u2019ve run six marathons\u2014the first when I was 15 and the latest a few years ago\u2014had a few careers, and became one of a few people in the world to have been cured of type 1 diabetes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I was a reporter for the <em>Baltimore Sun<\/em> Washington DC bureau, the City News Bureau of Chicago, the NBC affiliate in Tucson, Arizona, <em>Newsday<\/em>, and many other publications before I turned to advertising then to writing books. During this time the only diabetic \u201ccomplication\u201d I ever had to deal with was severe hypoglycemic unawareness that got progressively so bad I ended up in several multi-day comas. To combat the problem, my doctor put me on an insulin pump and that helped curb the lows to such an extent that it became a complete non-issue in my life.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was because of hypoglycemic unawareness, however, and my lack of any other diabetic complication, that in 2004 I was accepted into a study at the University of Virginia testing the effect of implanting insulin-producing islet cells from cadaver pancreases into a person\u2019s liver. In 2006 I received two transplants of donor islet cells shortly afterward I became \u201cinsulin independent.\u201d Although I had to take heavy doses of immunosuppressant medication, for more than a year I did not take insulin. It was as though I was cured of diabetes. More importantly, the study was a significant step forward in finding a cure not just myself, but for all diabetics. In my case, the islet cells, however, eventually failed and I resumed taking insulin. One unanticipated benefit even after the cells were no longer active was that I no longer suffered from hypoglycemic unawareness and the amount of insulin I take has been reduced to only two daily injections of long acting insulin.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Chasing-Medical-Miracles-Alex-Omeara.jpg\" rel=\"mfp\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-30367 lazyload\" title=\"Chasing Medical Miracles - Alex O'meara\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Chasing-Medical-Miracles-Alex-Omeara.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Chasing-Medical-Miracles-Alex-Omeara.jpg 300w, https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Chasing-Medical-Miracles-Alex-Omeara-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>From that experience I researched and wrote <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B005EP2356\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B005EP2356&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=asw07-20\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Chasing Medical Miracles: The Promise and Perils and Clinical Trials<\/em><\/a> (Walker, 2009) a book about my own experience and about clinical trials in general. The book was well reviewed in the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>, NPR, the Dr, Oz Show, and a few other places. The following year I published my first novel, <em>Bad Day for the Home Team<\/em> (Zumaya, 2010). I now live in Southeastern Arizona where I am working on a novel, teaching college English, pursuing my master\u2019s degree, and training in fits and starts to run my first 50 mile race.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve written several feature articles for A Sweet Life since May 2011, including \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/feature\/curing-diabetes-would-i-do-it-again-2\/\">Curing Diabetes: Would I Do It Again?<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/feature\/laying-blame-why-do-people-get-diabetes\/\">Laying Blame: Why Do People Get Diabetes?<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I look forward to posting more on the newly designed site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":53098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1501],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.9 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Other Side of Diabetes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For more than a year I did not take insulin. 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