My body is attacking my kidneys!!

So maybe a little dramatic, but actually a very accurate statement. You see I have been recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, IgA Nephropathy. I am a nurse and still didn’t know much about this disease prior to being diagnosed. You see I hadn’t been feeling well for quite awhile leading up to this. A list of vague symptoms and I failed to connect the dots. Prior to this I was very active and somewhere over the past year noticed that I just didn’t have the same energy or exercise tolerance. I got intermittent swelling in my ankles, but I contributed that to the heat or overuse. I was always so very tired, but as a single mother with a full time job that is par for the course. Over the past 6 months I had no tolerance for alcohol. Not that I drank much, but even a couple of drinks over many hours would give me a severe hangover. Headaches and vomiting, the whole nine yards. Maybe it was fate that one of these hangovers brought me to the ER. It was there that the mystery started unraveling. My BP was 224/170 and my kidney functions elevated. I received IV hydration and meds to control the nausea. I was sent home with advice to follow up with my PCP, which I did. I won’t bore you with all the details but an overnight stay in the hospital, nuclear stress test, head CT, kidney ultrasound, kidney biopsy and more labs than you can imagine later and we have a diagnosis.

The question is what is IgA Nephropathy? Essentially it is a non-curable disease, also known as Berger’s Disease, where antibodies known as Immunoglobulin A gets lodged in the kidneys. It causes inflammation and hampers the kidneys ability to filter waste. Because I don’t half ass shit, I have a complication of a rare form. I have crescentic iga nephropathy, with a Lambda light chain composition. The simple explanation is that these antibodies are aggressive, twice the size and leave a waxy residue that further hampers my kidneys from filtering proteins, toxins and fluids. The problem is they actually damage the kidneys to the point that kidney failure is a very real possibility. It is my very real reality.

So the reason why I bother sharing all this is two fold. When trying to find a direction for my blog, I didn’t know where to begin. This is my reality and it is the most real thing I can bring to you. I hope that this reaches others in similar circumstances, who may need someone to relate to. Perhaps a friend or family member may get some better understanding of this condition. The second reason is all self indulgent. I don’t want to start identifying with this disease. It is not who I am, but it is what I am dealing with. This is an outlet that I hope to illuminate with honesty and humor.