My name is Paige Donna Myers and I was diagnosed with PKD in 1993—I’d never heard of PKD ever! I come from The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
I started having kidney infections at the age of 19 that continued into my 20s. I was at a concert enjoying myself when I started to have kidney pain so I was taken to the emergency room. The nurse said I’d picked up a bug so I was given something for the pain and sent home. I was taken to a private facility the following day. The attending doctor recommend I get an IVP and a sonogram; the results showed that I had PKD. I was devastated! I was getting my singing and modeling career going and I was hoping to get into acting as well, but PKD said no.
As I got older I was experiencing more pain. I was told that there was nothing to be done for me, just treatment when I had an infection and that sucked— I had no information about this disease.
I kept getting pain that started to affect my life. Lots of ER visits, just antibiotics to help the infection, and it kept coming back. I eventually changed my nephrologist and she recommended I see someone for pain management, which helped some. I followed that up with two intervention radiology procedures for both my kidneys.
My nephrologist also introduced me to tolvaptan which has helped me some but my PKD journey continues. Thank you to the PKD Foundation.