My story

TL;DR

I know, my attention span isn’t what it used to be either. Ok, so the short story is that apparently, I had an undiagnosed urinary tract infection as an infant, and both kidneys were damaged. Then when I grew to adulthood, my kidneys could no longer handle the load.

The problem was detected in 2008 and I’ve been monitored every since. I was hoping not to get to this point obviously, but here we are. Keep reading if you want to know more.

Growing up

Oh, this is going to be long. Ok, so I was born asthmatic, quite seriously so. I got to know all of the fine people in the Emergency Ward before the age of 5.

Initially while my mother was desperately looking for help from doctors, they were prescribing Valium to her. Yeah…that happened. Some damage was permanently done to my lungs during this period. Thankfully it was damage that I could compensate for with exercise.

My mother finally found a decent doctor by the name of Dr. Chu, who listened and ordered an X-Ray of my chest, which quickly confirmed my asthma. He then offered to testify if my mother wanted to sue the aforementioned doctors. For the record, she was not interested in revenge.

From there my health improved. I played baseball. I rode my bicycle a lot.

Adulthood

No health issues from that point on for years. In my late 20s I noticed some muscle tension issues, and chronic fatigue. I didn’t think too much of it, and at the time my doctor suggested that Prosac could help with my fatigue. I took a pass on that one.

The end of my 20s were a blur, as I got married, changed jobs and bought a house, moving to Stittsville. Oh, and we had our first child. Y’know, minor life changes like that. I started having issues taking a full, deep breath. And I started having some chronic muscle pain in my right shoulder. The investigation began.

I had joint issues in my ankles, but I was still regularly hiking, biking, etc., without any real problems. Our focus was mostly on our kids, as by then we had a pair of them (2004).

Stittsville

Stittsville was very good to me and my family. I’ve been a happy resident for, oh, about 23 years now. Same house. It was tempting to up-size, but I’ve always been a fan of getting what you really need from life, and being happy with it. I had a great little family, a loving and beautiful wife, my career was doing well…why mess with it?

When the kids were little it was easy to get involved in the community. We tried to get them both interested in sports, we did the Tour Nortel with the kids in a chariot trailer on the back of my bike (tough climb, that Corkstown Road, with a trailer in tow).

I got into curling around 2009 and got the kids into it for a bit, helping out on the ice with the little rocks at the Huntley Curling Club. Great bunch of folks there, although for my curling I ended up at the Granite in Westboro (at the time anyway).

At the Granite I ended up helping on the ice with training new curlers. That was a lot of fun. Then I helped out as President of the Weekend Mixed League for a year or two. By then my kids were in the Little Rock program there too, for a while.

My older son had a fierce love of soccer though, and it took over his time. I ended up one of those parents sitting at the side of a soccer field in all weather, cheering him on. I even coached his last year in winter soccer, not that I was much more than a glorified secretary for young men who knew the game far better than I did. Still, it was fun.

But by then, things were starting to get harder.

Kidney Disease

In 2008 on a routine physical my doctor found protein in my urine. I was referred to the Chronic Kidney Disease clinic at the Ottawa Hospital, Riverside Campus. I started seeing a doctor named Dr. Bell, a nice guy who did what he could to monitor the situation and attempt to slow my fall. I had an ultrasound, which failed to find my left kidney for some reason. This prevented Dr. Bell from biopsying my kidneys as they used ultrasound to guide the needle and he did not want to stick a needle into my good kidney. He ordered a renal scan, which showed that my kidneys were handling load at 30%/70% for left/right kidneys respectively. Dr. Bell’s theory on my disease was called VUR, essentially an undiagnosed urinary tract infection when I was an infant. I am not a doctor, nor a Nephroligist. My only complaint was not being able to confirm that as my disease. I was told that the evidence supported this, and I accepted it.

I had joint issues in my ankles, but I was still regularly hiking, biking, etc., without any real problems. Our focus was mostly on our kids, as by then we had a pair of them (since 2004).

At this point, I saw the clinic every year, and then every six months, and then every four months, and so on, as my decline continued and my kidney function plummeted. The clinic predicted that I had about a year of function left. That was at least five years ago. But, my decline did continue, just more slowly as I overhauled my diet to try to slow my decline in the only ways that I knew. I hit the gym, and tried to overhaul my health. I had limited success, most of which was my fault. My priorities needed an adjustment, and I was running out of time. I was very good at sticking my head in the sand and pretending that nothing was wrong. But ignoring the problem did not make it go away.

The Kidneys Continue

So, up to today. It’s 2025, and my kidney function is at about %15. Due to this, the doctors in the CKD clinic are recommending that I prep for dialysis. I am planning Peritoneal Dialysis, as I can do that at home eventually, without hauling my ass into the hospital. I don’t think it’s going to be fun. I am trying to stay positive, and stick to a daily regimen of workouts, to do all that I can for my health, but the Neurological symptoms are making that difficult, and the chronic fatigue is a constant obstacle.

I don’t know if I have failed to push enough to get answers. I don’t know if I should go elsewhere, for a second opinion. I don’t know if it’s too late for any of that, and if I have somehow failed myself and my family by not acting sooner. I just…don’t know. And no one is answering.

So…yeah.

If you got this far, thanks for your time. I’m not sure I would have, in your place.