Greetings!
My name is Robyn Wickland. I am thirty years old and live in Central California. This blog is a way for me to express my feelings and thoughts through my journey with Chronic Kidney Disease. I want other young people with illnesses to understand that they are not alone and that sometimes you just feel like pure shit about life. Hopefully things will get easier in the next year for me!
I was diagnosed in March 2016 with Chronic Kidney Disease after going to the doctor for continually high blood pressure despite my young age and fairly healthy lifestyle. They figured, after testing, that I had been born with an under developed kidney on my left side that never grew like it was supposed to. On top of that, I had Essential Hypertension which is high blood pressure with no identifiable cause. My kidney could have caused it...it is a chicken or egg situation and doctors have no way of figuring what actually happened in my blood over the last 28 years.
After diagnosis, I was told to change my diet and continue excising but nothing too strenuous. Chronic Kidney Disease causes a number of delightful health issues which they doctors have to be cautious of through the patients life span. These include heart disease, vitamin d deficiency, diabetes, and more. So the nephrologist (kidney and renal specialist) also prescribed me two blood pressure medications, Vitamin D, sodium bicarbonate, and to stay on my birth control medication.
During my initial diagnosis, my GFR which is your kidney function was 33. The nephorlogist gave me 3-5 years until I would need a kidney tranplant. My function has gone down to 17% and testing has begun for transplant through UCSF (University of California San Francisco.) The future is scary as hell and I would like to get it over with as soon possible. This is not a possibility, unfortunately, because testing and insurance companies take time. Fingers are cross that it can happen in early 2018.
Follow this blog to learn what is happening, my thoughts on different subjects, and general feelings about being a sick person.