by Krissi Bates

Created on: July 01, 2007   Last Updated: July 02, 2007

My Kidney Failure Treatment Choice / What Everyone Should Know

I have a lot of things to say, today - all relevant to tomorrow. I hope you'll read this and really try to understand what it all means. I feel its important not only to my friends and family, but to others who might be facing the same decisions in the near future.

I've always said that I believe no one should blindly go forward with a kidney transplant until they are at the point in their thinking that they can and will accept all possible outcomes. I've known several people in real life, and dozens of others online, who've erroneously and desperately convinced themselves that having a kidney transplant will cure them. These patients think (wish? hope? need?) that receiving a new kidney will mean a "normal" life and things can go back to the "way they were". Sometimes, tragically, transplants do not go as planned and patients can then fall into deep depression and feel as though their life is over or no hope can be had for the future. What these patients never realized was that a kidney transplant is not a cure, it is merely one of many treatment options for kidney failure.

Not a cure, you say? Nope, sorry to disappoint, but a transplant is not a cure for kidney failure; this is the key point that I feel many patients miss. In fact, there is no known cure for kidney disease and very few known, proved treatments to combat the effects of kidney disease to prevent the kidneys from failing. Other kidney disorders, such as kidney stones, are more easily treated and rarely end in failure - However, MOST kidney diseases like mine end in kidney failure. While it is true that some people with kidney disease never do reach the stage of failure, my unprofessional opinion (based on my years of self-research and study) is that avoiding eventual kidney failure is rare.

Before I go on, let me give you some quick facts about what causes kidney disease and failure:

* Diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure.
* Uncontrolled high blood pressure is the second most common cause of kidney failure.
* African Americans are 4 times more likely to get kidney failure than Caucasians.
* People with a family member with kidney failure are more likely to develop kidney disease.

I don't fall into ANY of those categories, yet I've had kidney disease more than half my life (and kidney failure for three and a half years) So, even though many causes of kidney disease and failure can be avoided (or lessened) some just happen,

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