This is my first post here. I'm an ADPKD patient and have known it for the past 15 years. It's inherited, and my mother suffered from it when I was young. After a LOT of trips to hospitals and dialysis centers, she got a transplant in 1977. She died when I was 14.
I was always under the impression that I'd dodged a bullet because doctors performed an IVP when I was 12, and it came up negative for PKD. You can imagine how I felt, 30 yrs later, when an Ultrasound confirmed that I had the disease.
These days, my GFR is tanked. Yesterday, labs showed my GFR at 16. That's the lowest I've recorded. When it hit 20, some months back, my Nephrologist decided it was time to prep for dialysis, and she referred me to a Vascular Surgeon. I get an AV fistula installed on Mar 1.
Now it's real. I remember my mom getting her fistula installed. I remember going along with my mother for hemodialysis, three times a week, when I was 11 and 12. I remember the wait for a kidney. And now, it's all happening to me.
I remember my mom complaining that she looked fat. I could never figure it out, because my mom was not fat. Looking down at my stomach these days tells me that this is what she saw. My (and her) kidneys had increased in size so much that it pushed everything else in my abdomen forward. My grandkid told me I look pregnant. Smart ass kid. 😆 I'm told that this may complicate ever going on peritoneal dialysis because there will be less room for a port to fit.
I'll be around here often enough to complain about things. It's hard to do this when you live as far out in the country as I do. So, keep an eye out for me. You'll find me ranting about all sorts of fun crap.
G