This transplant patient has no lead in his feet!
Mike Foley is quick to admit he’s not your typical transplant patient — nor is he your typical athlete.
At the age of 40, with one kidney and two pancreas transplants under his belt, Foley runs an average of 25 miles a week, competes at least a couple of times a month, and plans to compete on behalf of the United States at next summer’s World Transplant Games in Japan.
Not being able to compete in the U.S. Transplant Games last June was a big disappointment for Foley, but not that big. "I got my second pancreas in May, and the rules say you can’t compete for six months after a transplant. It was a choice, to take the pancreas and miss the Games, but what a relief not to have to test several times a day and not have to use insulin at all," says Foley, a reporter for the Greenville (SC) News.
However, Foley has compared his current times with the winning times at the U.S. Games and says he could have won the 1 km and 5 km races and placed third in the half-mile. "I don’t know how that will translate in the world events, but I expect to be very competitive next summer."
Bitten by the racing bug
His physicians at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston don’t know, but just five weeks after the second transplant, Foley traveled into the mountains for a race in North Carolina, ostensibly just to watch his wife compete. But he got bitten by the racing bug and joined the race; he ran most of the way over a strenuous course that climbed 2,000 feet.
"I had been walking up to three hours a day, and I was really itching to get back out there," says Foley with a grin. "They wanted me to wait at least six weeks, but I just couldn’t do it. I was tired afterward, but it felt great!"
Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 20, he already had been running competitively for six years and was a member of the track team at Michigan State University, winning medals in almost every event he entered. "I know I blew the dietitian’s mind because I was running 100 miles a week and eating about 10,000 calories a day," says the rail-thin Foley. "They tried to put me on an 8,000 calorie diet, but it just didn’t work, so they let me eat what I needed, and we adjusted the insulin around my exercise patterns. It took a while to get things on an even keel."
Foley didn’t let diabetes get him down. It didn’t even slow him down for another 10 years, when renal failure threatened his life. Even then, physicians said Foley would need a transplant within three to five years, but he was able to hold off dialysis for seven years and had his kidney-pancreas transplant two years later.
The first pancreas failed after just 36 hours, but the kidney is functioning well 18 months after the initial surgery, and Foley is still running. Even with the surgery this year, by the end of October, he had already competed 30 times this year, and his times are improving with each race.
"I’m not in contention with the leaders anymore, but now at least they are within sight at the end of the race," he says. He’s now completing a 5 km race in about 22 minutes and expects to be in top form by next summer with a goal of completing that distance in 20 minutes.
"That’s a pretty good time for a 40 year-old," quips Foley. "But I was much faster in my youth. I don’t know if I slowed down because of age or the transplants or the diabetes and kidney failure." It doesn’t sound like Foley has slowed down much at all.
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