A Transplant Story: When Sharon Met Frank - by Sharon Brown

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was 13 years old.  By the time I turned 40, my diabetes was so hard to control I needed to go on disability.  Low blood sugars were unpredictable, and I would become confused and have seizures.  Once I spent three days in a coma.

My doctor helped me get new technology and I wore several models of insulin pumps.  Still, I had dangerous hypoglycemic episodes.  Finally, he suggested a pancreas transplant.  I’d never seen my name, and the word “transplant,” in a sentence together—I was completely surprised.  Gradually as I read more about it, I got more used to the idea.  The University of Chicago accepted me, and I began all those tests.  In late spring 2007 I was put on the “active” pancreas-alone transplant waiting list.

The Call came on August 28.  The timing was incredible!  It was a weekday but Karen, my partner, was home from work—and traffic was light, in the middle of the day.  We got to Hyde Park quickly!  Soon I was getting ready to go into the operating room.

I lay on the cart and heard the surgeon say, “Look over here!”  and there on a table lay this strange, ordinary-looking something—but then I fell asleep then and the next thing I knew I was in a hospital room.  My blood sugars were great!  I did not need to inject insulin!  This was a miracle to me!  I had spent 39 years worrying about what to eat, bringing supplies and candy everywhere—it was a brand-new start.  I had to learn how to live a different way.

Later I was walking down the hospital corridor and thought, “I need to name this new pancreas.”  I remembered that humble fleshy something on the surgery table and “Frank” came to mind.   My pancreas just did the job “no brag just fact.”   After that Karen and I decided to celebrate Frank’s birthday every August 28—and we have, fourteen times.

I wrote my donor family some months later.  It was hard to say how much Frank had CHANGED MY LIFE.  I got a very short, unsigned note back-—and felt sadness then-- but I decided to do whatever I could to help others.  So I am thankful for OTS, for you and your gifts.   And I’m thankful for FRANK!