My name is Christopher and I have polycystic kidney disease. I am 20 years old and go to school at Manhattan College to study media production. I always knew my family had a history with PKD because my grandmother had gotten a successful transplant years before. My grandma has always been so strong and has consistently led an active lifestyle, so I never knew the extent of what the disease could do. When I was 10-years-old my mother went into renal failure. Her kidneys were so enlarged that they had to perform emergency surgery to remove them and the doctors referred to them as “the twins.” Watching my mother struggle while she was on dialysis for the next nine months was the hardest thing, but she fought hard until she received a kidney from a live donor on Easter. Nine years later, I was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease at the age of 19. I am the only one of my four other cousins to have gotten the disease, but I haven’t let it stop me. I regulate my blood pressure and I lead a very active lifestyle rowing on my school’s crew team. I know that there are many options for me going forward and I am hopeful for future research into this disease.
