Pancreas recipients overjoyed at prospect of life without diabetes

For the first time in their lives, Patrick Nolan, 52 (at left in photo), and Harry Tynan, 39 (at right), are doing what most people take for granted: living without having to constantly check their blood sugar or inject insulin. Each man was diagnosed as a child with Type 1 diabetes and has spent his life dealing with the disease and the kidney damage it can cause. Each man has also received a kidney transplant, and each recently received a transplanted pancreas at Upstate, in effect curing their diabetes. “I‘m reliving my youth again. … I just wake up and go, ‘Wow!‘“ says Nolan of Syracuse. “It‘s a complete change just to look forward and not have to do injections,” notes Tynan of Oswego. “I‘m ready to pick up the insulin pen, and I don‘t have to.” For the first time in their lives, Patrick Nolan, 52 (at left in photo), and Harry Tynan, 39 (at right), are doing what most people take for granted: living without having to constantly check their blood sugar or inject insulin. Each man was diagnosed as a child with Type 1 diabetes and has spent his life dealing with the disease and the kidney damage it can cause. Each man has also received a kidney transplant, and each recently received a transplanted pancreas at Upstate, in effect curing their diabetes. “I‘m reliving my youth again. … I just wake up and go, ‘Wow!‘“ says Nolan of Syracuse. “It‘s a complete change just to look forward and not have to do injections,” notes Tynan of Oswego. “I‘m ready to pick up the insulin pen, and I don‘t have to.”