Eric Warnke

Eric’s Story

My name is Eric Warnke. I’m 22, a student at Marian University and I work part-time as an intern at JF Ahern in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

On November 29, 2021, I received a phone call that changed my life. During that call, I learned that my kidneys are failing. One week later, I would learn that without a kidney transplant, I could die.

Flashback to June of 2020: I decided to join the military reserves. I’ve always wanted to fly airplanes and the reserves felt like the best opportunity to do that. I passed every test except for the labs. I had them retested a few times, all with the same results: denied due to elevated blood pressure and proteinuria. Then I was sent back to the doctor for more tests, including an ultrasound of my kidneys. The results of the ultrasound cleared me but noted possible white
coat hypertension.

I had SO many questions…
How could a 21-year-old have high blood pressure?
What is proteinuria?
Will I ever get to fly airplanes?

Over the next eighteen months, I continued my education at Marian, and I kept working, but it became harder and harder to manage it all. In my first year at Marian, I made the Dean’s List, but now everything was a struggle. I had difficulty concentrating, I was tired all the time. Then there were headaches. I tried a chiropractor for a few weeks, thinking I might have a pinched nerve, but that didn’t help either – nothing did. More than anything though, I felt frustrated. This is not what I imagined being 21 would be like. I thought I’d be working toward my future, experiencing life, and having fun with my friends… not being run down, and managing mystery symptoms.

The week before Thanksgiving 2021, I made an appointment with my doctor. On November 30th they called with instructions for me to get to the emergency room as soon as I was able. I was confused. I wasn’t even feeling all that bad that day, a headache yes, but not ER worthy. But when I got to the hospital, they admitted me with a blood pressure of 212/150 (which is really high) and that’s when this whole thing became real. While they worked to get my blood pressure down over the next two days, they also ran lots of tests – one being a kidney biopsy that would be sent to John Hopkins.

On December 2nd, I was released from the hospital with a brand-new set of rules to live my life by, beginning with my diet: low protein with no salt. I was also prescribed multiple medications, each with their own set of directions and side effects.

Another problem that’d been developing was the semester ending on December 10th. There was zero chance I’d be able to finish everything in time. I had no choice but to email each one of my professors for help. Fortunately, I received an extension in hopes the semester wouldn’t be a loss.

On December 6th I went to a Bucks game with a few friends. I wasn’t feeling great, but I really wanted to go and thought I’d be fine. We stayed in Milwaukee that night and by Tuesday morning I was in Froedtert Hospital’s emergency room, being told the pain I was having was from a blood clot. The clot formed because of the kidney biopsy.

I met with a Nephrologist (a kidney doctor). He told me in a few days, I would have a Hemodialysis catheter placed so I could start dialysis, a process to help do the job that my kidneys aren’t doing.
Dialysis.
Dialysis?
Three times a week, every week, at 4 hours a crack?
At 22?

How is this happening???
The actual diagnosis was ‘IGA Nephropathy with End-Stage Kidney Failure’, a disease that affects like, 1 in 100,000 people. They said they were hopeful that in 6 weeks, my kidney function would improve, but I was referred to Froedtert and UW Madison for a Transplant evaluation.

On January 20th, I was invited to Froedtert to meet the team and am now in the final steps to be listed on the National Kidney Transplant list.
My name is Eric Warnke. I’m 22 and I need a new kidney. Through this journey, I know I’m blessed to have support from my family, Marian University, The Waupun Dialysis Center, SSM Health Nephrology, the hospital transplant teams, and my mom, along with her team who are helping me in my search to find a living donor.