I am PKD, this is my relationship with the disease. It’s written on my genes as much as everything. By the time I was eight years old, I figured it out that my mother had the same thing that my grandmother died from. The thought of my mother’s death became a huge weight in my life, I thought of it all the time. When I was 15 years old, I lost my mother from heart attack during a dialysis session. I was supposed to visit her the day before she died but I missed the ride with my father.
I had been with my mom at every stage of her disease, from dialysis to a transplant attempt. I was constantly anxious and I wanted to be around her all the time. I couldn’t focus on anything and I was never a good student. By 15 I was alone, I had to become my own mentor.
Suffering the full affects of PKD is something beyond imaginable for someone that doesn’t have this disease. It’s not just a disease. It’s a destiny that follows and predicts the outcome of anyone from a family that carries the disease.