Lifestyle Changes

After you have been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, you realize that CKD can change your entire life. After my first kidney failure, I tried to change my lifestyle. But at the same time, I kept getting denied medical assistance because I didn’t not have insurance coverage and had no way to afford medications.

Being denied for Medicaid at the age of 19 was a lot for me because I had medical bills but no way to pay them. I was behind on so many bills, that I ended up not being able to keep my apartment. Everything ganged up on me all at once and I felt like I was suffocating. It's hard to try and get back to a normal life. I remembered when I went on a walk for the first time with my husband and it was so difficult. I lost my breath almost immediately and it made me feel like a person that gave up.

Feeling helpless

I would feel dizzy all the time and it felt like I was going to pass out. After my second kidney failure and experiencing the alopecia and vision issues, I felt helpless.

I depended on my husband so much with the second kidney failure. He had to encourage me to get up and go outside no matter how I looked. I had really bad visual issues from the medication they gave me for my kidneys. This qualified me for Medicaid and Medicare after my second kidney failure. I was sick as ever and the judge felt like for someone so young, I should not have been going through that at all. I was able to get benefits that my first kidney failure would not qualify me for.

Starting the healing process

Imagine having to learn to walk and stand again. This was something I had to do because I stayed in a hospital bed for a while trying to heal. When I got released from the hospital, the healing process started at home. Some of the chemo drugs made me retain fluid, which caused me to have difficulty breathing most of the time, and as a result, caused me not to eat as well. I was either throwing the food up or I was eating to much sodium and making myself sick. My skin would heal and then peel back, and then heal and peel again, so much to where I started to see my skin almost close to the tissue.

I thought that using a towel would protect my scars but it only made it worse. I had to wear lose clothing because most of my clothes would stick and bleed and that did not help my body at all. The chemo drugs made me worse before they helped me get better.

Those drugs helped save my life and I was able to have a future that I thought I would not be able to have and I am forever grateful for the doctors I have had that saved my life.