Reborn to be Wild

For most of his life, Port Alberni’s Daryl Chase was a man of extremely modest ambitions. “My diabetes was so bad, my goal in life was just to get through each day without an insulin reaction.”

These days, thanks to the Edmonton Protocol, he’s able to think bigger. Earlier this year, with a July checkup scheduled at the University of Alberta Hospital, the 37-year-old islet transplant recipient decided to make the trip from Vancouver to Edmonton on his bicycle. “It was just a fun goal for me this year,” he says. “But then, my wife put it on Facebook, and I happened to get a bunch of interviews. So, then it became a ride to raise awareness of the islet program.”

And awareness was in short supply, Chase soon discovered. In a news story about the ride, one local news anchor said that Chase was “making the trek to raise awareness for a little-known diabetes treatment called the Edmonton Protocol.”

Many people with type 1 diabetes were equally oblivious about the amazing advances being made right in their own backyard. “Even along the way, on my ride to Edmonton, I talked to 20 or 30 diabetics who had never heard of the Edmonton Protocol.”

Fortunately, Chase had known about the islet program for years, thanks to insider information from a relative. “My cousin, who lives in Edmonton, is very active in cancer research at the University of Alberta’s Cross Cancer Institute. Because she knew I was a diabetic, she had been watching what they were doing over at the Alberta Diabetes Institute.”

As the islet program began to produce consistently excellent outcomes, Chase’s cousin picked up the phone. “About two and a half years ago, she told me that things look awesome now—that patients have been having few side effects—and that I should go for it.”

Chase did indeed “go for it.” Surprisingly, he didn’t need to jump through a lot of hoops to participate in the islet program. “They’re actually looking for people,” he says. “They have cells to use, and they don’t want to see them go to waste. Last time I talked to them, their call list was very short.”

During the screening process, Chase learned about the possible complications and side effects of the Edmonton Protocol—which is, after all, a transplant procedure. To him, however, the risks meant little when compared with the possible rewards.

Almost from the time of his diagnosis, at age 8, Chase had lived a life defined by type 1 diabetes. “It was tough, because I was a brittle diabetic. I would be on three to five needles a day, and having quite a few reactions per week—at some points, once a day.”

His blood sugar levels posed a constant worry. “My blood sugars would go from 30 or 35 down to 2 in a matter of 40 or 45 minutes,” he recalls. “I would go from way too high, to a reaction, to way too high again. That’s when you get into trouble, when your ups and downs happen so fast. My body would be doing that throughout the whole day. It was a continual battle for me.”

Things improved somewhat in his 30s, when he began to use an insulin pump. But, despite being a competitive athlete, he remained far from healthy.
“For the last seven years, I have been addicted to mountain biking,” Chase explains. “I would start a race, and five minutes into it my legs and body would completely seize up. At some races, I would end up lying in the bush having a reaction, or finishing the race and being too high. Either way, I wasn’t doing well at all.”

    
Along with the unstable blood sugars, Chase had begun to experience hemorrhaging in his eyeballs, and nerve damage in his extremities. “I’d come riding out of the bush bleeding, maybe even with a stick stuck in me, and I wouldn’t even feel it.”

Chase had also become acutely aware of the disease’s impact on his home life. “I didn’t realize it, but my wife hadn’t been sleeping at night for the last couple of years,” he says. “A lot of my reactions were during the night. Every time I would move, or start to sweat, she would worry that I was having a reaction. “So, basically, my wife didn’t sleep well for about ten years.

“Now that I’ve had the transplant, I realize that diabetes doesn’t just affect your own health; it affects your entire family.”

After his first islet transplant in December 2009, and a second the following July, Chase emerged into a mind-boggling new reality. “I’ll never have a reaction again,” he says, still clearly amazed and overwhelmingly grateful at the thought.

“It’s such a weight off my shoulders, and my family’s shoulders. Of course, they can’t tell you you’re cured—because the Edmonton Protocol is not yet considered a cure—but, for me, it sure feels like a cure. It’s an absolute, life-changing miracle.

“I feel like I’ve actually been reborn. It has quadrupled my energy. My blood sugars are perfect. I won’t be losing my eyesight—the hemorrhaging in my eyes has disappeared. My circulation is much better. It has just enabled me to actually live.

Chase’s outcome has exceeded even the most optimistic of his doctors’ predictions. “They told me that all of the nerve damage that had been done while I was a diabetic wouldn’t be fixed, although the damage wouldn’t continue to happen.

“But since I had my transplant, my nerves are growing back—unfortunately,” Chase jokes. “Before, I would never notice bug bites. But, I can definitely say that I don’t like mosquitoes now!”
With his marathon bike trip behind him (yes, he made it to his Edmonton appointment on time), Chase looks forward to even bigger, better goals.

“If I could get sponsors, I would just keep going. I’d ride across Canada!”