Lorn Reaney grew up playing hockey and lives for the outdoors, a familiar lifestyle for many Canadian youngsters. Just about ready to make the transition from middle school to high school, Reaney began feeling chronic fatigue and was experiencing severe emotional ups and downs. Although his mother had already suspected it, doctors diagnosed Reaney with diabetes at the age of 14.

From there on out, it was two, sometimes three insulin shots every day to keep the blood sugars normal. Hardly a concept a teenage kid is ready to grasp.

“I was usually very active so I was lucky as far as being able to somewhat control my blood sugars with hockey, hiking and different activities. I do have to say that I was fortunate that way.”

Reaney, now a conservation enforcement student at Lethbridge College, would live the next 31 years of his life coping with the incurable disease, whether it was daily insulin needles or chocolate bars. Nevertheless, it was a life full of emotional highs and lows. On two occasions, he would end up hospitalized from dangerously low blood sugar levels, which in turn started to take its toll on the heart and kidneys, which were leaking protein.

“The last thing I ever wanted was kidney dialysis. That wouldn’t have ever happened. I’d have accidentally slipped off a mountain or something I’m sure, because that was not an option that I wanted to even have to look at.”

As an avid hunter, Reaney would often go up in the mountains alone looking for sheep carrying with him the fear of collapsing.

This past June, Reaney would see his life take a dramatic turn for the second time when he received pancreatic islet transplants. Islets are cells in the pancreas that help produce insulin, which allows the body to properly use glucose for energy.

“When I got my transplant I actually saw them with my jug of islets, it was just like an IV bag,” said Reaney as he recalled the two-day procedure.
Reaney says he recalls the doctors inserting a tube between his ribs into a portal vein, pumping islets into his body at about 40 lbs of pressure. The islets were taken from a deceased organ donor, extracted from the pancreas and purified.

“I had been through a lot of testing to see if I would be a candidate for the program. For anyone who’s considering, it’s worth getting the application package.”

Requirements to become a candidate for islet transplants include the recipient being otherwise somewhat healthy, and having diabetes for at least 5 years.

Reaney says he heard about the experimental procedure on the news about 12 years ago and finally mustered up the courage to apply.

“I was worried it was too new,” Reaney said after he backed out of his initial scheduled test seven years ago.

On June 23, after his second half-hour islet procedure, a new chapter of his life would open.

“After I got my first one, my transplant coordinator came up and she looked at me and said ‘you’re body is now producing insulin,’ I was just….wow,” described Reaney, his voice trembling, eyes swelling with tears.

“This is a dream that I never thought I would have after 31 years.”

At age 45, Reaney finds himself to be seemingly free of the incurable disease, only having to take a daily anti-rejection pill, something comparable to a multi-vitamin.

Now Reaney goes through the normal highs and lows like anyone else and his kidneys are back functioning properly. He knows a generous donation was made to make it all happen.

“Without people willing to be donors, this would not go and that’s where I really have to acknowledge people signing their donor card,” says the emotional father of two.

“Most of us know diabetics or have diabetics in our family and that’s one message I really feel strongly about, is that it doesn’t happen unless we have donors.”

Although he never had the pleasure of meeting the family of his donor for confidentiality purposes, Reaney was able to write a thank-you letter.
“That’s where I was sad, I really wanted to thank them in person.”

In Alberta, islet transplants are done at the University of Alberta, with the most common risk factor being the body’s rejection to the foreign islets.
With Nov. 14 marking World Diabetes Day, Reaney will undoubtedly never forget how he was given a second chance, a chance to live full out, to come back to school.