Hi, my name is Monica. I was born with one kidney, and it bled a tiny bit my whole life. I never had any problems from it, and we never paid it any attention. I have glaucoma and am totally blind in my left eye, and my vision is around 20/100 give or take in my right eye with bifocals. I also have cerebral palsy in my right shoulder which was misdiagnosed as a muscle desease until last year. One day when I was 23, my whole body, including my eyes got completely dry, and the doctor took a blood test and asked if I knew my GFR was 29. I had no idea and it was really hard. I had zero clue what dialysis even was, and I thought once your kidneys hit 0; that was it!
My mom set me straight (she had no idea that’s what I thought, and we always knew it was possible that it could happen, just didn’t worry about it) and I got a nephrologist and started a low protien diet. While this was going on, my dad said he would give me a kidney, except right after that, he hurt his back at work and got an unknown primary cancer that took him in 2010.
After that devastating summer, we moved from our tiny town with no dialysis to the bigger city an hour away where most of my doctors were anyway. I got a natual fistula about 3 or 4 years before I needed to start dialysis so it was good and ready. I started in 2015; in October, my birth month, right when I turned 31. My kidney was still working but I think he said my blood was turning to acid and I’d need a shot every week, but I was always tired so I decided just to do dialysis.
I like everone in my clinic, everyone is very nice and pleasent there. No one’s perfect, but I’m glad to have them. I haved also been on the transplant list for about a year and a half.and got my first kidney call in December 2017. I was the backup, so it wasn’t my turn for that just yet.
Well, that’s my story. Sorry for the novel, lol. Nice to meet you all.
I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Author
