Joining the Kidney Community

Hey There!

Welcome to a newly added section to my website!

The Kidney Community Tag!

Here I will house all my posts regarding my activities relating to the kidney community such as participating in research projects & panels, volunteering, and guest speaking. Having kidney disease is a journey and coming to terms with kidney failure at a young age (23) is a punishing experience.  However, over the past 2 years, I have found connecting with our renal patients, particularly other young adults with renal disease, to have a profound impact on the acceptance of being on dialysis and carry on with my life.

By connecting with others within the kidney community, I was able to find the ‘common humanity’ that is in our shared experience as renal patients. Through reading and listening to the shared suffering of the inopportune hospital appointments, medication side effects, and dietary restrictions etc, I was able to shed the shroud of isolation I felt on dialysis. I developed empathy and understanding for others who were struggling as much as I was (if not more), which helped to shift the internal monologue of “me”, “I” and “my” to one that allowed for other people’s perspectives.

My hope is by sharing my stories and hopefully successes, I will be able to inspire others to become more active in the kidney community. By sharing our experiences, I truly believe we will lessen the pain and loneliness of other kidney patients who are going through dialysis alone but also grow a voice and raise public awareness of the lifelong management of kidney disease!

Even better if we could boost organ donation in the world! 😉