In July this year Andy and daughter, Abigail, took on the X-Runner Nottingham 10K on what was possibly the hottest day of summer 2018! The photos from the event look amazing and don’t really do justice to just how hard the event was to complete especially in the unusually hot summer weather. Andy and Abigail raised a fabulous £660 for Kidneys for Life!
Andy’s wife, Abigail’s mum, Sarah, is a kidney patient and her kidney story is shared with us:
In December 2015 after a period of poor appetite and gradual weight loss but otherwise no obvious illness, a routine GP blood test showed kidney function was just under 15%, this is when the “fun” started. Immediate admission to Stepping Hill hospital confirmed advanced kidney failure so was transferred to Manchester’s MRI as soon as a bed was available. Once in the MRI tests confirmed the diagnosis of IgA Nephropathy (also known as Berger’s disease, is a kidney disease that occurs when an antibody called immunoglobulin A (IgA) lodges in the kidneys). Attempts to stop the progression with chemotherapy & steroids were unsuccessful and kidney function continued to drop.
In April 2016 Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) was started and very quickly worked well with positive health improvements, now in June 2018 the PD still works well and allows near normal daily life. Despite often ‘over doing’ things resulting in being very tired, as a family all 4 of us very fortunately generally manage to maintain near normal life, this includes trips & holidays (more of this below) both in the UK and abroad, this is helped greatly by the support of the MRI renal teams. PD works very well and is generally possible to work PD sessions & normal life around each other, some examples are:
• We periodically go camping, we take either my manual (CAPD) fluids & heater with me, or the “Home Choice” APD (Automated PD) machine & fluids.
• Once with only 6 days’ notice, we booked & went skiing in December 2016 to the French Alps over Christmas (many many thanks for the help from the MRI kidney & renal teams completing airline medical paperwork, particularly as it was the last week before Christmas), we took about 50kg of CAPD fluids with us as airline hold luggage.
In Nov 2016 I joined the kidney transplant list. In Jan 18 (at about 4am) we got a phone call calling me into the MRI for possible transplant. The transplant operation was completed late that evening and all went well. Unfortunately 5 days later it was removed again due to a problem which was later confirmed to be a blood clot. Tests confirmed there is no underlying problem so should be able to return onto the transplant list, in the meantime PD continues to work well and near normal life continues.
Although the above makes it sound easy, it was/is a life changer, but the emphasis is “life changer” not “life stopper”, it is sometimes hard and tiredness is ever present; but the important lasting thought anyone receiving the thunderbolt diagnosis can keep in mind, is that life does not stop but “it continues with a few changes”. Andy ????