I've been scouring the internet for days trying to find someone who has a similar story to mine, so that I can see how things turned out for them. And in all this time, I've come up with zero results. Hundreds of sites that repeat the same things that I already know, the very things that I have repeated to my family and friends in my effort to explain the situation in an unalarming, yet comprehensive way.
"For people with chronic kidney disease, pregnancy is emphatically discouraged."
I'm 26 years old, and I've been married for four years. I have an exciting, average life. This means that my daily life consists of getting up, going to work, and generally doing everything I can to secure a comfortable future. I don't think I'm there yet. I've been through school, and after a long time being unemployed, I finally have a great job, and just finally starting to see the horizon on struggling financially. Its still a long way off, but at least I can finally see it now. My husband is my angel, he takes care of me, he comforts me, he loves me, he drives me crazy. We have had so many dreams and disappointments and hopes and all those good things that young American couples face. But, with me, crazy things happen to me - all the time. On a regular day, I might get my arm caught in the elevator, knocked down by a bus, find a roach in my hair, and/or have my train run over a person. I have a crazy and average life.
A little over a year ago, I was told that I had some type of kidney disease. It took about four doctors to be able to nail it down and figure it out, but I finally had a biopsy and learned that my kidneys were functioning at about 20%. In the sample taken I had an impressive 63 glumeruli, and of those, 47 were completely dead, 13 were partially functioning, and only 3 were actually functioning at 100%. 3 out of 63 is pretty damn sucky, but the blow to the gut was the adamant warning from my doctor that I would not be able to sustain a successful pregnancy. I already miscarried once, but I've decided that I want to try and bring a baby into my family. As of today, this is the tough decision that I am facing.
3 comments:
I found your blog via Krissi's. Feel free to hop over to my blog and look at the list of links titled "Other Kidney Journeys."
I know that the woman blogging at "Living with PKD" just had a baby.
I'm at rob.mdmonroes.com
Hi, Heather here from Living with PKD. I know first hand how awful in can be, waiting to get pregnant, wondering if it's the right decision, trying to decide if you can get pregnant, or even should. I have no good advice for you (sorry!). You just have to make your own decision, based on what you feel is right, taking into account what the doctors have said.
Only one doctor said I shouldn't be pregnant, and he wasn't a nephrologist. I had one OB tell me I should go for it, one nephrologist who told me I should be cautious, and my current nephrologist said it was up to me if I wanted to try. My current OB says under no circumstances should I have another one, and my current nephrologist said I MIGHT have kidney function sufficient for another baby. So, there you go--lots of doctors saying lots of different things.
I do have to say, however, that my pregnancy was difficult and painful, with my kidneys being displaced with my growing uterus, and the complication of my blood pressure. I don't think we are up for it again.
Good luck!
Thanks Heather, I've pretty much decided to go for it, I'm just trying to get an idea of what to expect and see if I will be up for the aftermath. Thanks again!
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