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Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: okarol on January 19, 2009, 12:07:45 PM
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I don't care about my X Factor daughter Alexandra's pop riches ... All I want is to be well again
By Jane Oddy
Last updated at 9:28 PM on 17th January 2009
Enjoying a hard-earned luxury break in Mauritius has been a bittersweet experience for singer Alexandra Burke, the winner of ITV1's X Factor. For the singer from North London would have dearly loved to have been soaking up the sun and swimming in the sea with her mother, Melissa Bell.
These days, however, Melissa - once the exuberant star of Soul II Soul - can just about manage the short drive three times a week to St Pancras Hospital, in London's King's Cross, where she needs to have constant dialysis.
Melissa, 44, suffers from Chronic Kidney Disease. The condition is a complication of type 2 diabetes - but she is just one of 7,000 CKD sufferers in the UK waiting for a kidney transplant, and is one of 37,800 adults receiving dialysis.
Up to 40 per cent of diabetes sufferers develop CKD, in many cases as a result of poor management of the condition.
Furthermore, experts estimate that there are 60,000 undiagnosed diabetes sufferers in the UK. A Government pilot screening programme for kidney disease is being run in London, Birmingham and Oldham.
Melissa's mother, Ivy, also a diabetic, died due to complications of the disease in 1992 at the age of 68 yet, astonishingly, Melissa says that after her own diagnosis she did little to control her condition and simply 'buried my head in the sand', ignoring the worsening symptoms that were warning signs of CKD.
Speaking at home after a gruelling four-hour dialysis session, Melissa recalls the start of her health problems in 1985, when she was 21 and had given birth to her eldest child Shenice, now 23.
'I was tired all the time and constantly thirsty, which at first I put down to the pregnancy,' she says.
But when the symptoms continued for several months, Melissa visited her GP, where blood tests confirmed she was suffering from type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes is a lifelong incurable condition that affects 2.5million sufferers in the UK.
Problems arise because blood glucose levels become abnormally raised - the result of either the pancreas not making enough insulin, the hormone that helps the body break down and absorb sugar in food (known as type 1 diabetes) or the body becoming resistant to the effects of insulin (type 2 diabetes), or both.
Over years, high blood glucose - hyperglycaemia - damages nerves and blood vessels, which can lead to complications such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, nerve problems, gum infections and amputation.
Type 1 diabetes, which accounts for up to ten per cent of all cases of diabetes, usually begins during childhood, and is thought to be triggered by a genetic fault.
Type 2 diabetes affects 85 per cent of those with diabetes, and usually starts after the age of 40. Although it does have a hereditary element, it is more linked to lifestyle - obesity and lack of exercise are known contributors.
A third type, gestational diabetes, occurs during pregnancy as the mother's need for insulin increases. Although this form usually clears up after the birth, women who have suffered from it have an increased risk of later developing type 2 diabetes.
'I was devastated when the GP confirmed it was type 2 diabetes,' says Melissa. 'I remember saying that I didn't want to die. He reassured me, saying my condition could be monitored and controlled.'
The first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes is diet, weight control and physical activity, which in many cases can lead to blood glucose levels becoming normal, effectively halting what is a progressive disease.
However, 80 per cent of cases eventually need medication - either injections or tablets - to control the condition.
Melissa, who has four children, Shenice, David, 21, Alexandra, 20, and Aaron, 16, has been separated from their father David Burke, 50, for many years. She was initially rigorous about her diet. When that failed to control her blood glucose levels, she was prescribed Metformin, one of the most widely used drugs for type 2 diabetes, which works by inhibiting the action of enzymes in the liver that break down sugars so that less glucose enters the blood. It also increases the sensitivity of the body to insulin.
Despite her condition, Melissa was enjoying a successful career singing with multi-million-selling British pop act Soul II Soul.
She admits that life on the road did her few favours, as she was constantly snacking to fill in the long hours before concerts.
Yet, looking back, Melissa is at a loss as to why she disregarded her health.
'Mum warned me about the dangers of diabetes but I didn't listen,' she says. 'And just the thought I couldn't eat cakes and biscuits made me want them more. I could not stick to a diet that would have helped me manage my diabetes.'
Then, in 1992, Melissa's mother died and instead of this prompting her to turn her lifestyle around, Melissa fell into a depression so severe that she ignored letters requesting she attend doctor's appointments for more than a year.
'I was afraid that when I went in they would tell me I was going to die. Every morning I would wake up, almost surprised to still be there. It was a very dark time.
'Like all my children, Alex was very supportive but she was still young. They weren't aware of how bad I was feeling because I tried to hide it. I didn't want to scare them by telling them my fears.'
Three years after the death of her mother, Melissa finally plucked up the courage to visit her doctor and glucose was detected in her urine. Usually there is no sugar in urine, but when blood glucose levels are high, some 'leaks' into the kidneys, and is excreted.
It was a sign that she was not properly controlling her condition.
By this time, Melissa was also suffering from hypertension (high blood pressure), another common complication of diabetes, and was prescribed insulin injections. Yet her refusal to change her diet continued to take its toll.
Despite her worsening health, Melissa managed to keep her career going and shockingly admits that instead of avoiding high sugar foods that are so dangerous to diabetics, she would eat them and then take double doses of her medication in the hope it might 'counteract' their effect.
'I thought I could get away with it by giving myself more insulin,' she says. 'But it often backfired and I gave myself too much, causing me to go into a coma.
'The children once had to call an ambulance. The paramedics gave me a shot of adrenalin to bring me round.'
Melissa could no longer ignore her problems when on a family holiday in Turkey in September 2007, Alex noticed painful sores on her mother's shins.
Problems with the lower limbs are the most common reason for diabetes-related hospitalisation, and diabetes is one of the most common reasons for amputation of the lower leg and foot.
This is due to problems with circulation, leading to sores developing, combined with nerve function deteriorating, meaning that patients often don't feel or notice serious infections that would usually be agonisingly painful.
Once they were home, Alex insisted Melissa visit the GP who immediately ordered a raft of blood tests that confirmed the worst - Melissa's kidneys were shutting down due to the strain of persistently high blood glucose.
The main job of the kidneys is to cleanse the blood of toxins and transform the waste into urine. Together the two kidneys filter 200 litres of fluid every 24 hours.
And when the kidneys are not working properly, harmful toxins and excess fluids build up in the body, which may cause the symptoms of kidney failure including high blood pressure, swelling in the face and ankles and extreme tiredness.
Melissa was admitted to hospital for further tests, where doctors discovered that only 25 per cent of the normal kidney function remained and that if they deteriorated further she would have no option but to go on haemodialysis, the process of removing waste and water directly from the blood using an artificial kidney linked to a dialysis machine.
Within a few weeks Melissa's kidneys deteriorated further and dialysis was commenced.
Dr Colley Crawford, Melissa's haemodialysis consultant at the Mary Rankin Dialysis Unit in King's Cross, explains: 'When the kidneys are working 15 per cent or below the level of a normal kidney, they start to need some form of renal replacement.'
Melissa says: 'Alex visited me in hospital and I cried. I knew I had only myself to blame. I thought I was going to die, like my mother. I couldn't bear the idea that I would leave my daughters alone.
'When they said I had hope and a chance of living, it was a turning point.'
Full of praise for her treatment on the NHS, Melissa has now started working hard to improve her condition and is keen to make others aware of kidney failure.
'It's a condition that can hit anyone, however super-fit you are. It is not always a hereditary illness - it can come out of the blue. Until I had this illness, I didn't realise the importance of my kidneys.
'I've already lost 6st through the stress of my illness, but I have to be lighter to make sure there are no complications and stress on my heart on the operating table.
'I just want the old me back. I want to have the energy I used to have. I will then be out on the tiles with Alex,' she smiles.
Until a donor match is found, Melissa spends four hours, three times a week receiving dialysis.
Dr Crawford is positive: 'Melissa has a lot of medical problems but compared to many of my patients, she is actually very fit. The fact that she is being considered for a transplant means she is among the fittest of my patients. For most people dialysis is a life sentence.'
Melissa bitterly regrets throwing away her health. 'Life is not the same, but all these events have made us stronger as a family.
'I'm trying to lose weight and I'm on a diet tailored to my condition so that if a suitable kidney match is found I can have the operation in three months' time.'
Although her life is restricted, Melissa says her home is a hub of activity and all her children still live there along with her aunt Carol. She is clearly ecstatic about her daughter's success but insists it will not affect their lives.
'I don't want riches, cars and money. My focus and goal is to be who I was and that is all to do with being healthy.'
Three million suffer from Chronic Kidney Disease
• Kidney disease can affect people of any age.
• About three million people in the UK suffer from CKD.
• Diabetes is the single largest cause of kidney failure. More than two million people have been diagnosed with it and at least a million people are believed to be unaware of it.
• Poorly controlled high blood pressure can cause chronic kidney failure.
• Of the 7,672 people on the national organ waiting list, 6,909 need a kidney.
• Only 1,800 kidney transplants are carried out each year.
www.kidneyresearchuk.org
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/diets/article-1120678/I-dont-care-X-Factor-daughter-Alexandras-pop-riches---All-I-want-again.html#