Hello all! Welcome again to my page. I know this website is supposed to be about my adventures in the geologic sense, and for the main part it is. But these public posts will be about more personal matters since I do come with limitations that may affect any adventures or trips I take in the near future.
First, I’d like to introduce to you the topic of my chronic kidney disease. This plays a major role in how I live my life and the lifestyles I choose to follow because there are certain things I cannot do or eat due to this disease. Kidney disease can be very serious but it can also be very adaptable. Its a trial and error issue and there are things I have had to deal with because of it.
My History with Kidney Disease and Kidney Failure
I was a perfectly normal kid growing up. I was raised by two strict hispanic parents who brought me up to have the standard “good person” morals. The Catholic religion was very well instilled in my sister and I growing up and I believe they did a great job being good parents to us. I started school when I was 5 years old just like everyone else. I had friends, I was shy but that didn’t seem to bother anyone at the time. I played, I cried, I laughed like any normal child. Then winter came and I was infected by the Strep Throat. I had just turned six and they were treating me with the strawberry flavored amoxicillin at the time. You know that yummy pink drink we loved as kids.
So the amoxicillin ran its coarse and we thought I was cured. Well aparently it was not completely cured. The illness stopped presenting its symptoms but it ran through my body and attacked my kidneys. Normally, symptoms of kidney failure would develop and a person going through kidney failure would experience things like random vomiting, fatigue, a decrease in urination, swollen legs. etc. Well, I was different. I never once experienced these symptoms, otherwise they probably would have caught it on time and I would have been saved. But that summer, only six months later, all the symptoms came in one day and I went from being a normal healthy kid to knocking on death’s door overnight.
I remember being at my aunt’s house. My mom usually dropped my sister and I off every morning so my aunt could watch us while she worked. I was fine the day before but that morning I woke up not feeling too hot. I progressively declined in my health during the day and began to have an aggressive stomach ache throughout the day. I was tired, I didn’t have energy to play, and I started getting these bruise colored blotches on my legs. By the time my mother came home to pick us up, I was in bad shape. My mom left my sister with my aunt and decided to take me to urgent care at Loma Linda.
On the way to Loma Linda, I vomited in the car. My mom had pulled over and cleaned me off before continuing but this entire time something was telling her that whatever I had wasn’t normal; that something was wrong. The doctors at urgent care weren’t very helpful. They just looked me over and told my mom that I was fine, that it was just a stomach virus to take me home and just feed me bland food and plenty of fluids. It wasn’t good enough for my mom. She went from urgent care and took me to the Emergency Room right after. She constantly tells me to this day that her gut had always told her that something was wrong. Had she taken me home from urgent care, I definitely wouldn’t be here today.
At the emergency room, they ran blood tests, urine samples and a physical test on me. The blotches on my legs were not normal, I was too weak and was running a fever. When the labwork came back, the doctor told us the results had to be wrong. If they were really as bad as they were, I wouldn’t be alive at the moment. They ran the labwork again and sure enough, everything came out the same. The doctor immediately ordered to place me on dialysis and told us that I was in danger of having a stroke or a heart attack at any moment. For twelve days, I remained in the hospital on dialysis. It took twelve days to stabilize me enough to be sent home with the treatment plan of coming back for dialysis three days a week until a kidney transplant could be available. Both of my native kidneys had failed with only one of them working at 8%. This was July 1997.
January 6, 1998
After six months on dialysis, kidney transplant day came. My mother ended up being as close to a perfect match there is so it was her surgery day as well. She donated her kidney to me on this day 22 years and 7 months ago. Without her selfless act, I wouldn’t be here alive to enjoy life’s adventures. So today’s post is dedicated to my mother and her beautiful sacrafice to give me a second chance at life.
Living with Kidney Complications
For almost 23 years, I have been living with this beautiful gift of a second life. Life hasn’t always been easy of course. I’ve had to survive different traumas in my life and although these traumas have had a huge impact on my character, I have to be grateful for them. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without them. But to add kidney complications to these traumas was a lifestyle that not many can deal with.
For one, I am always tired. Part of having kidney disease for 23 years is that you end up having complications once the new transplanted kidney starts to slow down. It’s inevitable that the transplanted kidney will decrease in function faster than a normal person’s because at the end of the day, the transplanted kidney is a foreign organ in your body. It will never replace your own kidneys that you were born with. The doctors told us 23 years ago that the average lifespan of a transplanted kidney is approximately 15 years so just now making it to 23 years in Jan 2021 is a blessing all on its own. But I am currently on the national Kidney Donor list and am looking for a new kidney to add to my family of kidneys. So now that I am working at 12% function means that even more complications with my body will start to appear. The good news is that once a new kidney comes into my life, these complications will go away!
So the constantly being tired is a symptom of failing kidneys because kidneys are responsible for creating the hemoglobin that the blood cells require to send oxygen throughout your body. This makes you anemic when the kidney can’t produce any more hemoglobin so I have to take injections so that my body can create its own hemoglobin. Being anemic does hinder my abilities to hike around and do my job because I end up just getting worn out much quicker than the average person. This particularly sucks when you have a huge sense of adventure and you can only hike a couple of miles before you tire out.
Another major complication that I’ve had this entire 23 years, but has worsened in the past 2 years is muscle/joint pains. I get them quite frequently usually at the end of the day. It’s worse on the days I work or have to hike around/walk around a lot. The joint pains feel like the pains of arthritis (I’ve been tested but have come out negative for arthritis). The muscle aches are the worse. They feel like constant night cramps and because the kidneys are so bad right now, I could only take over the counter tylenol products (since acetametophene is filtered through the liver and not the kidneys). On days where they are REALLY bad, I have a prescription for Norcos but I try not to use those because they are highly addicting and my doctor will only give a certain amount to me per year. The leg pains I have to say are the most uncomfortable of the kidney disease complications I deal with. And now that the kidney is at its lowest function, the leg cramps have worsened to Restless Leg Syndrome. The doctor said it was normal and all kidney patients come down with it eventually. Great.
Some limitations include any type of muscle building workouts. When you tear apart your muscles for them to get stronger, a hormone called Creatinine is released. This is the same hormone that is released by the kidneys to measure its function levels. So during workouts, your creatinine will increase giving the impression that your kidneys are working harder. Most doctors can’t measure the difference between kidney creatinine and muscle creatinine so they tell me to keep the workouts to a minimum. My current doctor is awesome though, he tells me to continue working out and has accepted that if my creatinine levels increase just a little its due to the workouts and my kidney is still stable. But he warns that if I will be working out, I must drink more water since the kidneys only work well with water.
Dietary Restrictions
Having kidney disease comes with dietary restrictions. WHo knew there was so much food out there that was bad for your kidneys!? Honestly, I didn’t start following a kidney diet until about 5-6 years ago. As a child, they never sat us down and told us what I should or shouldn’t be eating. Had I known back when I was six that dark sodas would be a kidney killer or that red meat was hard on the kidneys, I definitely would have avoided those sooner and maybe my current kidney wouldn’t be in such a low state. But back then, I don’t think they had much knowledge in this area. About 5 years ago, I sat down with a nutritionist because my phosphorus levels were getting too high. She gave me a list of foods I can and can’t eat, drinks I should avoid, etc. It was very eye opening.
I can’t have dark sodas, so I just avoid all sodas. I cant eat red meat since it is difficult to digest and it makes your kidney work harder to filter out meat. So I stick to a basic pescatarian diet with some chicken and turkey included. There are plenty of veggies I cannot have due to high potassium. Anything high in potassium is hard on the kidneys. This is particularly hard since I have a major weakness for french fries. Ugh that is my favorite thing of all time. But I make compromises for that. If I have potatoes one day, I won’t have tomatoes or bananas on that same day and vice versa. I now cant have any red sauces or tomato based sauces/foods due to the potassium levels in those foods. But see, everything has potassium because potassium is a common nutrient in products with preservatives. Which comes to my phosphorus levels. Phosporus is the most common nutrient in all preservatives. Any thing that is processed will have high levels of potassium and phosphorus. Kidneys can’t take preservatives very well. Once your kidneys stops working, it cannot filter these nutrients regularly from your body so your nutrient levels will increase as your kidney function decreases. Because of this, adding anything with preservatives will only increase the levels of toxins in your blood stream and it will increase your chances of getting sick, having heart problems or worse having a stroke.
I didn’t know how much your kidneys took care of your body throughout your life. Having kidney disease has definitely made me appreciate how hard my organs work to keep me alive and well. When you introduce toxins into your body, your kidneys will filter them out. But when your kidneys die off, your filtering system is gone and now you have an abundance of toxins in your blood stream keeping you down and wilted. Take care of your body and it will take care of you. I am now almost 23 years kidney strong and yes, I’m at 12% function but it is stable for now. As long as I can still move and have fun and live without being debilitating, I am a happy camper. Feel free to send any questions my way or comment with anything you’d like to share. I will be posting some healthy kidney recipes and other lifestyle choices of mine just to show you all how things can still be done with a disease like this. For those of you out there that can relate or have kidney issues like mine, please reach out! I will be posting the kidney donor sign up webpage for those of you who wish to potentially be an organ donor or would like to find out more information about kidney disease. Spreading awareness is the first steps to finding potential donors or better yet even building a supportive community! I’m an open book so please send those questions my way!
Love you all! I appreciate the following and the love you all share. 🙂
