by Angie Nelson

Created on: April 06, 2009

For the past ten years I have been living with kidney failure, and I don't even know why. By the time I was diagnosed, it was too late to biopsy my kidneys to determine a cause. I had none of the usual risk factors: childhood fevers, uncontrolled high blood pressure, or diabetes. No one in my family had every been diagnosed with kidney failure. I was only 19.

I am turning thirty this year, and I am blessed. Many twenty-somethings dread their thirtieth year, but I am celebrating it to the fullest. I feel very fortunate that I am alive to celebrate this upcoming milestone. I have had many complications living with this disease. It has been quite a learning experience. Countless trips to the emergency room, months spent in the hospital, dozens of hours spent in operating rooms, and then there is dialysis. I couldn't tell you how many hours I have spent on dialysis, but I could give you an idea. For the past five year I have been doing peritoneal dialysis every single night for ten hours at a time. That is roughly the equivalent of 760 days spent attached to a machine. Granted, that machine keeps me alive, and for that I am grateful. I am happy I can do dialysis in my own home, and travel where I want, when I want. Still, it is a burden on me, and on my family and friends.

When I was first diagnosed, I met with my nephrologist, or kidney specialist. He is still my doctor today and I love him like I love my own father. He has kept me alive this long, he is compassionate but direct, and he has never treated me like a child. So many people treat me like a child because of my disease. It is one of my biggest pet peeves. My doctor explained dialysis to me, and suggested peritoneal would be my best option. However, at nineteen, I did not feel I was capable of handling my own treatments, so I opted to go in for hemo-dialysis 3 times a week.

A nurse would hook me up to a dialysis machine through a catheter in my chest, and I could sit in my recliner and watch television, crochet, or read. Mostly though I liked to listen to music while on dialysis, and take a nap. Kidney failure makes you tired. That was probably the hardest thing to get over. I was young, I thought I was healthy, and suddenly I am sleeping twelve to sixteen hours a day. My friends and family had trouble coping with it to. Lucky for my, I have an excellent doctor, and the nursing staff is tremendous. Dialysis nursesare the most patient, caring nurses in all the land, if you ask me. They help my family and

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