Desperately Seeking Kidney!

May 5th, 2019 is a day that I’ll never forget. My wife, Dionne, and I had gone to the plant nursery the day before and I was tired. Significantly more than usual. But, it was Cinco de Mayo so I decided that I’d make the effort and wake up early because the plan for the day was to get the new shrubs planted before joining in on the holiday festivities. We were heading out to get some dirt when my cell phone rang. My wife’s doctor was calling me (which was weird, especially on a Sunday morning). She had made an appointment with her doctor because I hadn’t been feeling well. He asked all the normal questions and performed a physical along with a complete blood work-up. To my surprise, he called and urged me to quickly get to an emergency room because my creatine levels were more than he’d ever seen, and he was afraid that I wouldn’t wake up the next day. In that moment, my life changed. I had no idea what creatinine levels were, but it scared me so badly that I couldn’t finish speaking to Dr. Gardner. I handed the phone to my wife and she took all the information down that he instructed for her to take and give to the nearest ER. I was immediately admitted to the hospital, diagnosed with stage 4 kidney disease and had my first surgery so that I could begin peritoneal dialysis a few days after I was admitted.

Since then, I’ve been on both peritoneal dialysis and a chest port (I’d developed a hernia and needed to wait until it was healed to begin peritoneal dialysis again). I do this every night for 9.5 hours in order to flush toxins from my body. Otherwise, I cannot live. I’m often extremely tired and need to miss work but I try to keep my spirits high with the help of my family. I have had to change my diet completely, which hasn’t been easy because it excludes many healthy foods from my diet that the normal healthy person can consume. I have even had to change how much I can drink as my fluid intake is limited to only 32 ounces per day. Without a donor, I run the risk of my arteries calcifying, which would kill my chances of ever receiving a transplant and simply put, dying. Kidney disease is real. I must get blood work regularly, epigone and iron shots to boost my red blood cells.