A ground-breaking procedure has radically altered the life of a Port Alberni man who struggled with Type 1 diabetes.
Darryl Chase, 39, is the eldest of two brothers who were both born and raised in Port Alberni. The part-time Canada Post worker and bicycle geek lives in the Valley with his wife and daughter.
Chase’s childhood was no different than that of other kids. He went to school, played sports and was a typical kid.
At age eight though, Chase noticed something that was different from other kids. He had an unquenchable thirst and urinated more frequently as a result. His parents took him to the doctor, where he was subsequently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
“I learned that my body didn’t know what to do with its excess sugar so it was excreting it,” Chase said. “And the more I urinated the more water I had to drink.”
Chase began living an all-too familiar story to diabetics: he had to prick his finger for a blood sample, test his blood sugar level then administer an insulin shot up to four times a day.
Chase played competitive sports through his teens but struggled to manage his diabetes. “I’d drink a lot of water during sports I was sweating from a game,” he said. “I’d end up falling asleep or waking up to someone giving me food to help me out of a diabetic reaction.”
His struggles weren’t just in sports either. “I’d be having a reaction and people would think that I was drunk or high on drugs and call the cops,” Chase said. “They thought I was intoxicated until they saw my diabetic bracelet.”
At home, his family would be worried when he was out, thinking he was laying by the roadside in a diabetic reaction. Or, when they heard a thud at night they’d think he’d fallen during a reaction.
“People don’t realize that it doesn’t just affect you. It affects your family and friends too,” Chase said.
Chase was later diagnosed as a brittle diabetic, a type of insulin-dependent diabetes characterized by dramatic glucose level fluctuations that happen seemingly for no reason.
In 2010 Chase chose to pursue a new diabetes treatment — the Edmonton Protocol— in an effort to control his condition. He underwent an islet transplant in which pancreatic islet cells were injected directly into his liver with a needle.
Chase was subsequently weaned off insulin over the next five days and spent the next four weeks in hospital. He’s not had to prick his finger or shoot insulin for the last two years. The after-effect of the operation “was like nitro in an engine,” he said.
“My blood circulation was better so my energy levels quadrupled. And I lost more than 10 pounds so the spare tire I’d developed was gone,” he said.
The procedure paid off in other ways as well. Chase liked to race mountain bikes. Previously, his muscles would turn into lead and his body would seize up early in a race. “Now though, I can go harder longer and I don’t seize up until later.
Before, Chase’s goals revolved around diabetes and managing symptoms like eye hemorrhage “and just getting through the day without a reaction,” Chase said.
Today, Chase races, tools around in his small bike shop, and has set a goal of cycling to Edmonton for a check up.
“Doctors told me that my procedure wouldn’t cure me or repair the damage to my body,” Chase said. “It turned out better than I thought it would, though.”
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