# Pancreas Donation



## morgans-mummy (Mar 30, 2010)

is this possible
I want to donate my pancreas to my daughter- if this works would she no longer be diabetic???
im at my witts end


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## Mand (Mar 30, 2010)

Hi morgansmummy

I am so sorry to hear you are at your witts end. I am not aware that pancreas donation is possible. Hopefully someone else will reply to you that has more knowledge of this.

How long has your daughter been diabetic and how old is she? Is she on mdi?

Keep strong. You are not alone.


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## sasha1 (Mar 30, 2010)

morgans-mummy said:


> is this possible
> I want to donate my pancreas to my daughter- if this works would she no longer be diabetic???
> im at my witts end



Hi Morgans-mummy ...

I'm sorry to hear your at your wits end ... sending you big hugs ...  ... I'm sure as other mams on hear will tell you, your definitely not alone here .. I will admit many times I have felt at my wits end ... If I remember from your hello ..on the forum .. your little one has'nt been diagnosed to long .. and how you are feeling at the moment is completely natural ... and it will get easier ... us mam's are extremely hard on ourselves .. feel free to pm me if you want a chat .. 

As regards to donating your pancreas .. Adrienne may be the best mam to get in touch with on this .. I have a little knowledge about pancreas transplants .. But dont want to give you any wrong or misleading information ... One thing I would say though is to donate any part of body to your child .. you would have to be a match ... which would lessen the risk of rejection of the organ ... your child would have to also take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives .. drugs that have many side effects.

Heidi
xx


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## Freddie99 (Mar 30, 2010)

morgans-mummy said:


> is this possible
> I want to donate my pancreas to my daughter- if this works would she no longer be diabetic???
> im at my witts end



Hey there,

I'm sorry to hear that you're at your wit's end. The answer to your question yes but at a very high price. You would then become a type one yourself and your daughter would need anti rejection drugs (such as cyclosporin) to stop rejection of the organ for the rest of her life. There is the chance that you and your daughter being incompatible as far as organ donation goes, that's to say that you would not be the same tissue type as your daughter (think along the same sort of lines as blood group). The amounts of anti rejection drugs required can be quite phenomenal, they also require constant monitoring so this means lots of blood tests and they can have negative side effects such as leaving you open to illness because they turn down the effectiveness of your immune system.

I'm really sorry that I can't offer you any substantial hope,

Tom


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## shiv (Mar 30, 2010)

Tom Hreben said:


> Hey there,
> 
> I'm sorry to hear that you're at your wit's end. The answer to your question yes but at a very high price. You would then become a type one yourself and your daughter would need anti rejection drugs (such as cyclosporin) to stop rejection of the organ for the rest of her life. There is the chance that you and your daughter being incompatible as far as organ donation goes, that's to say that you would not be the same tissue type as your daughter (think along the same sort of lines as blood group). The amounts of anti rejection drugs required can be quite phenomenal, they also require constant monitoring so this means lots of blood tests and they can have negative side effects such as leaving you open to illness because they turn down the effectiveness of your immune system.
> 
> ...



as tom said, the amounts of anti-rejection drugs are huge. i met a guy this month who has had a pancreas transplant about 5 months ago and he started off on 45 tablets a day. it has reduced down to about 7 or 8 now.


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## am64 (Mar 30, 2010)

i cant help you with all the in and outs but i can send you a big hug xxx


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## Northerner (Mar 30, 2010)

You also need to bear in mind that your pancreas doesn't only supply insulin, but also digestive enzymes so that you can digest your food. From what I remember, a pancreas is normally transplanted along with other organs as it can be an extremely complex operation to just transplant the pancreas. Unfortunately, it is not as straightforward (!) as a kidney transplant.


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## sasha1 (Mar 30, 2010)

About a month after Nathan was diagnosed .. after the initial oh my god, hes what, how, whos to blame, why cant it be me, etc , I asked the same question to his consultant.

Heidi
xx


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## Adrienne (Mar 30, 2010)

Hey you.   Boy that's a biggie.  I personally don't know of anyone who just has a pancreas transplant, it is normally along with the liver as well as they all work together in some way.

Removing a pancreas is not an easy option, believe me.   Jessica had hers removed.   It comprises, head, body and tail.   The head is wrapped around the bile duct.  If the bile duct is nipped, it blocks then you need a bile duct bypass.  This happened to Jesscia.   

I was told by one of our profs from Gt Ormond St years ago that they had managed to regrow a lady's pancreas from good cells but they were a long way off of knowing how to put it back inside her.   You would need some sort of bag or holder that the body would not reject.    This was her own regrown pancreas.

The amount of anti rejection drugs would be phenomenal for her and you would also need looking after, you would be type 1, like Jessica, with bells on.   Without digestive enzymes, which are kept in the pancreas, it makes it even harder.  You would have to take supplements like Jessica and if the dose is not right (and it changes) then it is even harder to get good levels.

It is a lovely idea and if it was at all the right way, then we would all be in the queue behind you.

But do you know what the best thing you can do for your daughter is?  Be you exactly as you are.   You are doing exactly the right thing.  You are fighting her corner, you are caring for her, you are keeping her safe, you are loving all of her including that damned diabetes, and you are her mum.   She doesn't need a type 1 mum, believe me.   She needs a healthy mum to keep her sorted.

So you keep hold of your pancreas very tightly because your daughter needs you to have your own one so that you can look after her poorly one.

You will get there.   You and she will be ok you know.  

xxxxxx


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## jimmysmum (Mar 30, 2010)

Im sorry i dont know anything about transplants, although i have recently met a man who used to have type 1, he had a kidney & pancreas transplant and was on 110 tabs per day, i think he said he has it down to 60 odd now.
I just want to say hugs to you bcoz theres no doubt that being a parent with a child with this awful illness is truly horrendous but im sure your doing a fantastic job looking after your little one, take care lots of love xx


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## Kei (Mar 31, 2010)

I think we would all like it to be possible.  No-one wants their child to have type 1, and we'd much rather we could have it for them.  If DH and I could donate our pancreases to F and J we would.

HUGE hugs to you and your little one.

Kei
xxx


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