From The Times of Swaziland
Chronic kidney disease – a silent killer
There is a dangerous health problem on the rise, more common than diabetes and twice as prevalent as cancer. New evidence shows that the majority of those stricken by the condition do not even know they have it. What is this insidious epidemic? The answer is chronic (long-term) kidney disease.
Located just below the rib cage, on either side of the spine, the kidneys are like a laundry service cleaning your blood. Their function is extremely important, because if we were unable to get rid of waste materials they would build up until they poisoned our bodies.
Chronic kidney disease often goes undiscovered until symptoms show, but these symptoms do not arise until kidney function has fallen to less than 25 per cent of normal and irreversible damage has occurred. With your doctor’s help, you can detect the disease earlier and even prevent it altogether. What you can do for yourself is to get screened and stop the damage by changing your lifestyle and watching for warning signs.
Here are the most common signs and symptoms:...
From ClintonNC.com, Clinton, NC
Since the day I was diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), I have found support in talking to people who have been down the same road I have traveled. Now, I have known plenty of people who have kidney disease, but very few did I know when it first hit me that I had this little known disease.
Ironically, people are always surprised to hear that I have no family history of this disease since it is a genetic disease. In fact, it is caused by a dominant gene, which translates to the fact that I must have a parent who has PKD. However, I guess I truly am unique since I have no family history of this disease and I am part of that small percentage of patients who have disease simply because of a mutation in my genes. Of course if I had children one day, I now have a 50/50 chance of passing it on.
Knowing that I don’t have any family member to talk to about this disease, I just have always looked for people walking a similar path as mine. One person who has proven to be heroic in her battle with PKD is a Facebook friend of mine, Valen Cover Keefer. Her battle with PKD started when she was much younger than me. I had never even heard of PKD until I was 25, and at the age of 19, she was lying in bed at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore clinging onto life. She was diagnosed at the tender age of 10. Now she did have a family history of the disease, but it is not very common for someone with the dominant form of PKD, like mine, to be diagnosed at age 10. She received her transplant in 2002, and she is alive and well thanks to her friend Sally donating her a kidney.
Read more: The Sampson Independent - Kandid Katie
The Polycystic Liver: Webinar & Talk
May, 26, 2013. A polycystic liver can be a part of a Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) diagnosis. This free webinar and talk will help you understand what causes the polycystic liver, its effects, and how to manage the disease.
The Hamilton Chapter of the PKD Foundation of Canada is pleased to present a webinar by Dr. Marie Hogan of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, followed by a talk by two-time liver transplant recipient Jan Robertson, Co-Founder of The PKD Foundation of Canada.
Gift of Life
From KVIA.com, ABC affiliate El Paso
Gift of life: El Paso Sheriff's office employee donating kidney to co-worker
A Sheriff's employee is helping his co-worker live a fuller, longer life. Daniel Rollings, a grant writer for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office is donating a kidney to Michaela Hebeker, a Lieutenant with the Sheriff's Office.
Hebeker suffers from Polycystic kidney disease. The disease is genetic. Her liver only functions at 10 percent and she must undergo dialysis treatment every day for nine hours. Hebeker has not stopped working full time, which means she has only about two hours a day that are not devoted to dialysis or work.
After learning of her condition, Rollings said he was moved to help. "One day I just received a text from Daniel asking me 'what blood type are you', I told him don't be fooling around with me because other people have also said 'if you ever need it - let me know' - and they didn't follow through," Hebeker said Tuesday.
Rollings was not fooling around. He's had to undergo six months of thorough tests - psychological and physical - to prove he's fit to donate an organ.
From TriCities.com, Marion, VA
Living donor from Marion becomes 'little angel' to longtime Rural Retreat coach
A couple of years ago, we got Dean Rhea in trouble. Sorry, Dean.
The News & Messenger visited “Big Tom” (of “Survivor” television fame) Buchanan’s farm and found an unexpected story: Big Tom’s lifelong friend and legendary local football coach Dean Rhea needed a kidney transplant. He had a hereditary disease called “polycystic kidney disease,” which had claimed his sister and father. Dean handed us a card with contact information for anyone who might be interested in being a living donor and we, as unsuspecting as he, ran that information in the newspaper. It turns out that’s illegal. It’s called “soliciting organs” and it got Dean chewed out.
So: Sorry, Dean. We didn’t know either.
But sometimes, “no news is good news” just isn’t true. A woman named Carol Edmiston read that article (published Jan. 22, 2011) and felt a sudden sense of purpose. She was going to give Dean Rhea a kidney. “She was so dead-set that that was something God had told her to do, so when I saw how much she believed that was going to happen, I quit worrying,” said Dean. “Everybody said, ‘Well, do you think it’s going to work, do you think it’s going to work?’ And I go, you know what, the face she had, there was no question to me that it was going to work.”
From BurtonMail, United Kingdom
'Priceless' donation leads to transplant games
IT was 2am when Jo got the phone call that would change her life.
Her husband was away and she had to feed the neighbour’s cat but the 56-year-old called a taxi and rushed to hospital.
“I told my husband not to panic but to come as soon as he could.”
After four years on a waiting list and dialysis, a kidney was found and now she could have her life back.
Eight years on, Mrs Hopkins, who volunteers at Burton Hospital’s Phoenix Hospital Radio, is hoping to raise awareness of organ donation by taking part in the British Transplant Games.
From News.Yahoo.com
Detroiter's Story of PKD Diagnosis, Kidney Transplant, and Outreach
People often speak of defining moments, events that change the course of their lives. Christopher Gutierrez of metro Detroit had such a moment while on a paint job. He fell off a ladder onto a 5-gallon paint bucket. The fall was hard enough that it caused a big bruise and resulted in a trip to the doctor.
"Just to be safe," Gutierrez said, "my doctor sent me for an ultrasound of the bruise, and that's when they noticed there was something wrong with my kidneys. They diagnosed that I had polycystic kidney disease (PKD). I was really asymptomatic when they discovered it. I had no clue."
PKD Fundraiser
Spennymoor and Bishop Auckland family's fundraising
THE family of a baby who died minutes after being born are raising money to help people affected by the condition that claimed his life, and other causes close to their hearts.
Claire and David Vickery, from Spennymoor, lost their first child, Harry, to a genetic kidney disorder soon after his birth in January, 2010.
His death was a complete shock to the couple as they had no idea that both carried the same autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease gene.
A year later Mr and Mrs Vickery, who now have a healthy two-year-old daughter, Lucy, raised more than £1,000 for national child bereavement charity, Sands.
From CommunityAdvocate.com, Northborough, MA
Northborough sisters golf fundraiser to aid kidney disease research
Sisters and Northborough residents Nancy Turpin Powell and Kristen Turpin were diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) six years ago. PKD is one of the most common, life-threatening genetic diseases, affecting thousands in the U.S. and millions worldwide. On Tuesday, June 4, the sisters are sponsoring the second annual Turpin Sisters PKD Golf Tournament at Wachusett Country Club in West Boylston to raise money to find new treatments and a cure for their disease. All proceeds will again be sent directly to the PKD Foundation. Last year’s event raised approximately $28,000.
From JewishTimes, Baltimore
Kidney transplant patient, thrill-seeker psyched for downtown rappel
At 9 months old, Jared Weiner was diagnosed with autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease, a rare genetic deformation that enlarges the kidneys and can negatively impact the liver and spleen. At 10, he made it through a lifesaving kidney transplant. He’s endured pneumonia and kidney stones. He’s had biopsies, routine blood draws and ultrasounds. Every morning and every night he’s downing 10 to 12 pills aimed at keeping him alive.
When you catalog everything that Weiner, 18, has endured, stepping off the edge of a 28-story building doesn’t seem nearly as daunting; you can understand why he’s so fearless.
On Saturday, June 8, Weiner will participate in the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland’s fourth annual Rappel for Kidney Health. Last year, Weiner, a graduate of Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School, was the only rappel participant to be an actual kidney transplant patient. Gearing up for his second descent, he’s even more excited.
PKD Treatment
From KidneyServiceChina.com
Cordyceps, also known as 'winter worm summer grass', is a genus of fungi used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with functions to enhance energy, longevity, and quality of life. How does it help people with Polycystic Kidney Disease?
Kidneys
Cordyceps can increase the blood circulation to other parts of the body, thus regulating the normal functions of the kidneys. Symptoms of PKD including fatigue, anemia, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, etc can be relieved. The renal function can be protected from being damaged.
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