Benchmark Technology Group welcomes LaTonya Stewart as their new Invoice and Accounts Receivable Specialist! LaTonya brings significant experience to the team, having held various accounting-related positions with the US Government and Bank of America dating all the way back to 2006. She originally hails from Hampton, Virginia, but with her mom being originally from Columbus, Georgic, she decided to move back and make the Peach State her home.
But the real story about LaTonya’s tourney here isn’t lust about a new city or a new lob – it’s c major personal victory in a battle against a disease that nearly claimed her life. You probably wouldn’t guess it from her sunny demeanor, but LaTonya has been fighting Type I diabetes since childhood, and she’s a multiple organ transplant recipient. Working at Benchmark is her first foray back into the workforce after a 6-year unemployment bout, and a big step on the road back from a decades-long struggle marked by near-death trials, a lifechanging operation, and an enduring journey of recovery and health management.
Like many who have Type I diabetes – also known as juvenile diabetes – LaTonya’s diagnosis came as a surprise. During a
medical appointment for a seemingly unrelated issue, a blood test revealed her blood sugar was six times the normal level. Her family was shocked to learn she had Type I diabetes, an instant sentence to a lifetime of insulin injections and constant monitoring, She was 14 years old
Even among adult diabetics, fewer than 1 in 4 patients manage to successfully control their symptoms. The odds against a teenager who’s thrust suddenly into such a life-altering situation could almost be called unfair. And so it’s not a complete surprise that LaTonya did what so many other diabetics do when confronted with their diagnosis: She tried to hide it.
“Because of this disease that I didn’t know I had, I was already very small in stature. I weighed about 90 pounds, and I got picked on for it,” she recalls of her high school years. “l didn’t want to be bullied even more because of my condition, or be left out even more – so when my friends went out for pizza, I’d go out for pizza. I wasn’t checking my blood sugar levels during the school day. I basically only took insulin when I didn’t feel right. So over time, and through a lot of pain, I was in denial.”
Nonetheless, LaTonya forged ahead with her life graduating high school and moving to Georgia, and gutting it out through a series of lobs that included her accounting work for the government and Bank of America It was during that stint with the bank that her life was turned upside-down once again.
One morning a friend drove me to work, and I was in the parking lot outside the building about to go in, when I suddenly fainted and got sick to my stomach,” LaTonya says. ‘My friend called them to let them know what was going on, and eventually I pulled myself together and went in to work. But partway through my shift, the manager pulled me aside and told me I was fired for being late!
“l went home and called my doctor, and he told me, ‘You need to go to the emergency room, you could have lust died from a stroke’.
A visit with a nephrologist brought more devastating news: LaTonya had stage IV chronic kidney disease and advanced kidney failure. The doctors gave her a choice – either she could be put on dialysis for the rest of her life, or she could go on the waiting list for a transplant.
“They [the doctors in Georgia] were trying all different types of medication for me, but eventually in 2016 1 had to have a kidney and pancreas transplant. I heard that John Hopkins in Baltimore had the best kidney transplant doctors, and with my dad’s family living there, I said, ‘OK, cool! I’ll already be there, then, when that time comes.”
Not long after that, however, her fading health forced LaTonya to make the difficult decision to move back to Dayton, Ohio, with her parents who could provide more regular care. Her new nephrologist in Ohio told her she’d need a double transplant of both a kidney and a pancreas which would be carried out at Ohio State Wexner Medical Centen If there was any silver lining, it was that the pancreas transplant meant she would no longer be a diabetic.
There was one catch: A living person cannot donate a pancreas, so the transplants would have to come from someone who had recently died and was a close enough match genetically. That meant the call could come at any time, whether that was in a day or a year. LaTonya was told the usual waiting time was six months to a year, but within the first month. she got an urgent message from the hospital to come in. A donor had been found-a 15-year-old girl. whose mother was not much older than LaTonya herself. “I got the call from the hospital that they’d found a match, and I needed to get there as soon as possible. It sounded like they were just going to do some prep work or screening. But I got there, and they told me no, you’re getting the transplant now – this is it!” Closer to 2018. LaTonya started to have scary episodes of headaches and vomiting, which landed her in the hospital again. Soon the pain became unbearable, and the other symptoms worsened, leaving her fighting for her life. After six surgeries In less than a month to try and correct the problem, they were no closer to an answer, and doctors were baffled about what to do next. LaTonya said this is where the miraculous happened. “My surgeon went home to pray, and he said that God spoke to him and said, ‘You must take out the pancreas right away, or the enzymes from it will move more into her body and she will die.” The medical team hadn’t realized it, but her body was rejecting the transplanted pancreas (but not the kidney
which had brought her dangerously close to death. The doctor’s premonition had saved her. The story did not end there, however. Reflecting on months of time in the hospital, physical therapy, and learning how to live with a refurbished internal filtering network, led LaTonya to put her experiences to pen and paper-and now a brand-new book. Still, I Rise: The Story of How Diabetes Changed My Life is a recently published book, with national promotion efforts on the horizon. LaTonya hopes this book will impact others who may be going through something similar, especially to educate others who are facing down the same grim news she got almost 30 years ago. “At the end of the day, God gave me a second chance. I didn’t take it seriously early on, so I learned my lesson from that. And, because a lot of people get confused with the difference between Type I and Type II diabetes, I wanted to show the complications with Type I and the seriousness of the disease “If there’s one positive message I want to share, it’s that this disease is not something to be ashamed of, it’s not something to run from; and not to wait – do something about it today. If my story helps break down that stigma for someone else, they don’t have to go through what I did.” As you can reach out to LaTonya or stop by her office in Alpharetta, she welcomes the chance to give you more of the story. And of course, she’ll also show you pictures of her cute Yorkie, Chocolate Drop. You can find out more about her book efforts at latonya-stewart.com
