A Kidney Warrior’s Brave Journey?

Out of all the health-related incidents and circumstances I have experienced in my life, I have chosen exactly none of them. I’ve had no say over when I became ill, what my diagnosis was, or what I’ve experienced as a result. Admittedly I have chosen some of the ways I’ve responded to what’s happened to me, and I hope that I’ve managed to be mostly positive in the process, but far more importantly, I’m simply

Continue reading »

Personality. Perfectionism. Peer Support.

I’ve written many times about the close friendships I have with other people who also have kidney disease. They’re part of my life via a combination of Facebook groups, social media platforms and (my obvious favourite) in-person connections. It’s also no secret that at times my mental health has been extremely poor and these relationships have been the only thing standing between me and what would probably have been a total emotional breakdown. What I

Continue reading »

There’s a crack in everything

Kintsugi (金継ぎ) is a traditional Japanese art form, with the name literally meaning to patch with gold. Kintsugi transforms broken pottery into new artwork using gold lacquer to repair the cracks. Being diagnosed with a serious chronic illness and needing an organ transplant are things you never think will happen to you, until they do. When I look back at my pre-CKD self, I find her almost unrecognisable. My life has changed forever. While I absolutely don’t believe that “everything happens for a

Continue reading »

A “Good Enough” Recipient?

Sometimes, I compare myself to other patients. Thanks to both my level of charity involvement and the wonders of social media, I am pretty well-connected to a very large number of other patients and transplant recipients. All of us have different situations and different experiences. Some are “much worse” than me. They have stories, from a health perspective, a personal one, or in many cases both, that I cannot imagine having lived through. As the

Continue reading »

Anxiety, ducks and Weebles.

It’s probably no surprise to readers of this blog that I suffer from anxiety. In fact it was actually the subject of one of my very first posts, a couple of years ago! In between writing that post and writing this one, what has changed? Everything and nothing. Obviously there have been some fairly major changes in my life. I started dialysis, then unexpectedly got a transplant very quickly and am now physically healthier than

Continue reading »