A Face to Kidney Disease

When you think of PKD, what do you picture in your mind? Is it the image with a normal-sized kidney in comparison to the football-sized PKD kidney polluted with cysts? Is it the unknown of what your future may hold for you while living with this disease? Or is it the...

Up for a PKD Challenge?

“By a show of hands, how many people know what PKD (polycystic kidney disease) is?” This is how I begin most of my speeches. I have asked that question at over 80 events. I continue to be amazed as I scan the room and so few hands are raised. This shows me how vital...

Ripple Effect

I put my pillow on the back of the chair and slowly sat down. Last Friday, I went to my first physical therapy appointment for treatment of a herniated disk in my lower back. (See blog post titled “Lifestyle Changes” posted on February 7th to learn how this began.) I...

Filling the Void

As a little girl, I never dreamed of my fairy tale wedding, my ideal home with a white picket fence and beautiful children running happily around our perfectly manicured lawn. Was it because of my health struggles as I child that I knew I wouldn’t follow the...

Lifestyle Changes

My left hand rested on my lower back while my right hand leaned on the couch attempting to hold myself from falling to the ground in excruciating pain. It was the kind of PKD pain I had prior to my bilateral nephrectomy. I managed to get myself in a seated position on...