Skip to main content

Pancreas transplant gives Huntington man new kind of life

Chris Setser, who recently received a pancreas transplant, sits with daughters Ashley (left) and Krystal. He is also the father of Zachariah and Johnathan Setser.
Chris Setser, who recently received a pancreas transplant, sits with daughters Ashley (left) and Krystal. He is also the father of Zachariah and Johnathan Setser. Photo by Cindy Klepper.

For most of his 33 years, Chris Setser had to carefully monitor what he ate in order to keep his blood sugar in balance.

He's been unable to live alone because an unexpected medical emergency would send him into a tailspin.

"Sometimes, I woke up and the EMS would be at my house," he says.

All that changed on Mother's Day, when Setser received a pancreas transplant at the Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis. - something Setser considers almost a miracle cure.

"I'm not diabetic any more," he says, sitting on the couch of his parents' Guilford Street home with two of his four children.

Setser was diagnosed as having diabetes at 15 months old, and he was what's known as a brittle diabetic - prone to major swings in his blood sugar levels.

"I could keep my diet and have my blood sugar dialed in, but if I changed anything in my exercise program, I would bottom out," he says. "Then when I ate, it would skyrocket."

Heading out for a round of golf required special preparation - a meal designed to counteract the physical activity, plus a can of pop in his bag in case he experienced a blood sugar swing on the course.

He was also taking 12 shots a day to control his diabetes and had started to experience diabetes-related eye problems.

"It wasn't very much fun," Setser says.

The problem was in the pancreas, an organ that produces insulin and helps the stomach break down enzymes.

His parents had looked into a pancreas transplant when he was a child, but doctors then discouraged the idea, saying it probably wouldn't be successful. After that, Setser says he never really thought about a transplant as a possibiity.

"It's not really talked about that much," Setser said of pancreas transplants.

The idea of a transplant returned when Setser learned that two members of his church bowling league both had pancreas transplants a decade earlier.

"They encouraged me to look into it," he says. "The next thing I know, I'm down in Indy interviewing, and then I was on the transplant list."

This time, doctors had no reservations.

His insurance company approved the surgery in just two weeks and Setser's name was placed on the transplant list last October.

"Seven months later, I got the call," he says.

It took surgeons just three hours to place a donor organ alongside his own defective pancreas, which remained inside Setser's body.

He's feeling great now, he says.

"I've had toothaches that hurt worse than this, Setser says.

Setser is taking anti-rejection medications but says his overall recovery has been quick because, aside from the diabetes, his health has always been good. He expects to return to work in August at United Technologies in Huntington, where he's been employed for 10 years.

Even though Setser will take anti-rejection medications for the rest of his life, he expects to live a normal, healthy life - free of the complications of diabetes.

"The longer you're diabetic, the more you're at risk for kidney failure, heart failure, all the other things." Setser says. "Now, it will slow it way down because all my blood sugars are normal.

"I'm looking forward to my health just being balanced. I would have been more prone to long-term complications soon."

He's already seen improvements in his health, he says, and he's now free from all the restrictions on his diet.

"That's nice, too," he says. "It will be nice going out to eat with my family and not having to think about if I'm getting the right carbs or the right portions. ... Now I can order a bigger steak."

He's looking forward to living on his own, he says, even though moving back home with his parents hasn't been all that bad.

"When something big happens, everyone comes together," he says. "That's the way our family has always been."