Our Stories

Shoshana’s Story

When I was 18, I noticed some weight gain. I lived on my own with no insurance and I noticed I was often sick when I lived a generally healthy lifestyle. I weighed around 150-160 pounds and by the time I was 19, I was 200 pounds. I remained untreated until I got severe pneumonia. I was 250 pounds and it was all water weight. I was spilling 15,000 mg of protein on average a day. After I recovered from the pneumonia, I had a biopsy done and was diagnosed with FSGS and Nephrotic Syndrome.

Not knowing what it was. I Googled it and found it was going to be inevitable that one day my kidneys would fail.  

Had I known what was going to happen, I would have refused the biopsy until I had insurance and was financially prepared.

I've landed in the emergency room at least 12 times since then. I've had pneumonia twice and there was once an infection on my knee that turned into an abscess and I almost lost my leg.  I have psoriasis and most recently I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. None of these run in my family so the cause was "idiopathic."

I lived in denial for a long time and overworked myself at work. On July 11, 2011 I had a blood test and my Creatinine was 3.4. One week later it was 7.9 to which I experienced the most painful cramps in my life. A week from that my Creatinine went up to 16. I experienced seizures and stroke-like symptoms. The doctor called it a metabolic imbalance. I had 80% brain damage because of toxin build up. Luckily I have recovered about 90%. I now have ESRD and do peritoneal dialysis, I’m at home regularly.

At first I was sad that it came to this, but now I have Medicare and Medicaid and am getting the treatment I need.

I feel greater than I have in years. I am also looking forward to a transplant. I look at life with a smile. After going through this, I feel I am strong enough (despite my weakness) to do anything. This was a blessing in disguise in how I force myself to view life.  I take care of this every day in order to live as normal as I can.

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