Posted on 09/22/2004 2:18:39 PM PDT by Marie
Dear Mrs. F:
Thank you for inquiring about our xenotransplant program for diabetics. Our revolutionary program is helping many diabetics reduce the dosage of daily insulin injections, and in many cases eliminating injections altogether. To answer your questions: 1) This cell transplant has been approved by the Department of Health and the National Center for Transplant of Mexico as an actual treatmenton a fee basis. It is no longer part of clinical trials. 2) Your concern about porcine C-peptide is a valid one. We ask that patients that receive this transplant be tested once a year for a period of 5 years, just to be on the safe side. None of our patients have showed any signs. 3) We can do the procedure on your son. Because your son's levels are so radical, I have enclosed a clinical history form for your doctor to fill out to get a better idea of how advanced his diabetes is. We will not give you false hope, if his condition is too far along, and the doctors decide he will not benefit from the operation, we will not accept his case. 4) In order to consider a transplant operation a success, the patient must show at least a 30% improvement. 60 % of our patients have improved, and about 3 have been completely off insulin for some time.
As I stated above this is now a clinical treatment and not an investigation, anyone with Type 1 diabetes, that meet the medical requirements can have it done. The fact that none of our patients have to take immunosuppressive drugs, or have had serious complications, or have died, makes our procedure a very safe alternative for diabetic patients. Please visit our website at www.xenomexico.org to get additional information about the program and to be added to our waiting list. Once we have received your questionnaire filled out, our team of physicians will review your case and determine if you meet the specific criteria. If your questionnaire is accepted we will contact you for further information and also send you an Informed Consent Letter giving us permission to operate.
Sincerely,
Isis Casanova
Public Relations
Laboratorio de Xenotrasplantes
icasanova@xenomexico.org
Dear Mrs F:
At this moment our procedure has been aproved as a clinical treatment, so your son can be included, but you have to sign a consent letter. We have done 30 patients and three of them are free of insulin, we have detected porcine insulin in all of them.
The fisrt group of patients are almost five years after the transplant 6 of them are working from 12 and the chronic damage of the disease has stop; some of them have improved. No one have shown any kind of complication. Please contact Mrs Isis Casanova for all the information requested in order to included on the waiting list.
50% show at least some improvement with 10% completely off insulin.
100% have confirmed porcine insulin production.
More information can also be found on this board.
WARNING: Approach this information with caution. This could be a dream come true for many of us, but it could also be an exercise in false hope and frustration. At worst, this could be a nightmare. Ask many, MANY questions. Research everything.
God Bless.
More details can be found here:
http://www.islet.org/forum/messages/35038.htm
www.xenomexico.org
I've been diabetic since I was nine months old and I'm 38 now. I'd love to know what it's like to live as a "normal" person, but I don't think I'm willing to take this risk now.
Clinical trials complete with only 30 or fewer patients?
It is interesting and I hope that it ends up working.
Do you mind if I ask how old your son is?
Ask them for details. Find out when they'll be published. Research the information. I'm not advocating this. But it is worth looking into.
http://www.xenomexico.org/pag_princ_eng.htm
He's 11. He'll be starting the pump on Monday. (I'm holding my breath.)
Interesting. I too have a son, now 26, who's been Type I since he was 8. As you say, time will tell. Right now, we're just happy the testing has improved so much, and he's in great control mode with his pump technology.
I'm sure he'll do great. I've heard really positive things about the pump. I've been resistant to going on the pump because I've been injecting for so long. I guess it's the you can't teach an old dog new tricks thing.
The attitude was amazing. "I was mad at first, then I got used to it" was the basic theme. I'm a diabetic. It's not that bad. *shrug* Shots suck, but you get used to them. I really have things to do.
It really hit me that my kid would rather not be a diabetic, but he's not all that broken up about it. He really hates the lows (hopefully the pump will help with that), but it's just another part of life for him. It's just part of his life. I really need to relax about the whole thing and stop freaking out about every little mix up.
"It's just part of his life."
Exactly. It will become just one more part of the many things that make him who he is.
I'd like to offer you some advice from the child's perspective. Don't treat him differently because of his diabetes. My mother, bless her heart, has always treated me like I was a fragile piece of crystal. She still panics if she can't reach me during the day and she still tries to control my life. I understand why she does it but it has caused problems in our relationship over the years.
I guess I'll have to reschedule my partial lower-extremity amputation in Haiti next week now.
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