On the 4th of August 2016, I went to have some routine bloods before a scheduled clinic appointment a few days later. I felt fine and went and wandered around the supermarket afterwards. But that evening, our landline rang. It almost never rings. On the other end was a registrar from the hospital. He explained that my bloods had shown a huge deterioration in my remaining renal function. My eGFR was down to 8, and
Unfortunately, I relapsed in October 2013, and quickly became well acquainted with the nephrology department of my local hospital, which, fortunately, is a large teaching centre. Back onto steroids I went, and more Rituximab was scheduled for April 2014, our thinking being that it slowed things down last time, and we might get equally lucky again. This time it only partially worked. My kidneys continued to deteriorate, and I was placed on the transplant list
‘d In early 2013, I finally reached “remission”. The steroids and Rituximab had worked. Although the damage to my kidneys was not repaired, it had stalled. I began to hope that I could start moving on with my life. Back when I first started treatment, and I realised I was facing a long road over unknown ground, I told myself that if/when I ever reached remission, I would travel to the UK to explore and
In January 2011, I had an eGFR of 30. This equates to a rough percentage of kidney function, so while things were certainly looking less than stellar, they weren’t yet quite severe enough to warrant treatment – much to my surprise! This was because the treatment consisted of chemotherapy and high doses of steroids. Both of these have some pretty serious side effects. After much discussion, we decided it was in my best interest to
On September 20th 2010, I felt sick. I was a 23 year old primary education student on a teaching placement in a classroom full of five-year-olds, so I assumed I’d caught something from one of them. Off to my GP I went for some blood tests to get a medical note to excuse me from placement. “Don’t panic”, said a friend, “You probably have the flu.” Ha. When my blood test results came back as
I’m Holly. I’m a writer, speaker and kidney patient advocate currently living in northern England.
