Kidney Failure

Did you know that kidney failure is a silent killer? 

Fact: Kidney disease, also known as “chronic kidney disease (CKD),” causes more deaths each year than breast cancer or prostate cancer. It is the under-recognized public health crisis. (kidney.org)

Now that I've briefly introduced myself and this blog, let's talk about kidney failure and kidney health in general. If you read yesterday's "Hello" post, you already know that my kidneys were on the verge of shutting down in 2014. If I had not gone to the doctor that day, it is highly likely I would have lied in bed thinking rest and fluids would make me feel better, and I would probably have died in my sleep. My poor husband, we were only married three months when this happened. What a horrible thing that would have been for him, and everyone else who loves me. I was that close. So let's talk about kidneys, what they do, and how to keep your kidneys thriving so they can keep you feeling awesome!

Kidneys filter everything. Every single thing we swallow or inhale gets into the blood stream through the gut or lungs -- even everything absorbed through our skin! When we handle chemicals such as weed killers, bug killers, etc., without gloves and masks, it gets in. It's as simple as that. So follow warning labels. Simple. Just do it. 

Kidneys have one of the most difficult jobs in your body. They filter every drop of blood as it circulates 24/7. That's what they will do if you have healthy kidneys. They are also part of the process that makes new healthy blood cells! 

Compromised kidneys can't do that. Compromised by what, you ask? Dehydration, for starters. 

People do not drink enough water. You've heard it all your life. Drink eight (8) cups of water daily. Simple. Just do it. 

I hated water. So believe me, I get it. I literally hated to drink water. I drank coffee most of the day. I thought of it as flavored water. 

Sometimes I drank herbal tea or green tea. Sometimes I drank juice, usually cranberry -- at least that was helpful! But water? Uh-huh. I would drink Gatorade. Sometimes I would dilute juice or Gatorade with water, but that was as close to drinking water as I got. It was rare for me to drink good ol' water.

Now, after what I've been through with ten years of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), which is the clinical way of saying that my kidneys were constantly failing, I drink 64 ounces minimum daily. That was the first step toward healing my damaged kidneys. 

My kidneys functioned at less than 50% for a decade. For the first two years after my April 2014 hospitalization, my kidneys were at 12 to 20% function. That means I had less than half a kidney! 

It is only by staying hydrated -- Rule #1 -- and maintaining a strict kidney diet of very low amounts of foods that are rich in calcium, potassium and sodium that I avoided dialysis and helped my kidneys to slowly heal. Very slowly. 

Let me share what that lifestyle was like, just to scare you into staying hydrated and reducing the amount of sodium you probably eat. 

Whenever we went out to eat, nearly everything on the menu had too much sodium. I could have a salad of iceberg lettuce, but I could not have my favorite -- a spinach salad. I could not have leafy greens that were rich in those three minerals. Almost every vegetable and fruit is rich in those three minerals. 

Want to know what I could have? Canned peaches. Apples. Iceberg lettuce. Yippee. 

Then there's salad dressing. Nope. Almost every kind served in restaurants is too high in sodium. I could have oil and vinegar. But not a vinaigrette, look at almost every brand in the store -- look at the sodium (in many countries the label simply uses the word "salt" because that is what it is). 

I could not have salt. Period. Look at how much sodium is in a dash of salt. Now add that to naturally occurring sodium in vegetables, dairy, grains, meats and fish, and you quickly see how easy it is to consume too much sodium when you have less than half a kidney to serve your entire body. 

People who lose one kidney must maintain a kidney-friendly diet for the rest of their lives. If they don't they will soon find themselves on dialysis and a transplant list, if they consent to such invasive medical procedures. I do not consent -- my Advanced Healthcare Directive specifically forbids both. I find these measures too extreme and not worth the loss of quality of life. In plain English, I would rather die than live like that. Someone else can have the donated kidney. I'm done here when it gets that complicated.

I also had to restrict protein. So what did I eat, you wonder? Carbs. Lots of empty calories. Lots of boring foods. I was so unhappy about this diet, for so many years, I almost didn't care and almost decided to eat whatever I wanted and just die already. Why did I choose to try to regain my kidney health and restore my quality of life (being able to enjoy foods I love)? My son was in college. He needed his Mom whether or not he understood how much that was true.

I could not have soup or gravy, and most sauces in restaurants and stores are ridiculously high in sodium. And I love curry!!! I couldn't enjoy naan or curry when we went to Indian and Thai restaurants. 

I could have limited amounts of dairy. And did you know that oranges are rich in calcium? Oranges were a no-no for me for many years. 

Almost everything is now fortified with calcium - cereals, milks of all kinds, breads and other grain products. 

For nearly ten years, I felt frustrated whenever I had to figure out what I could eat when we were away from home. I had to make my own unsalted trail mixes. It was hard to find unsalted nuts! Most grocery stores were completely unconscious about the need for low-sodium and unsalted products. 

I can't estimate how many hours were spent reading nutrition labels. To this day, I leave jars and cans on the shelf turned with the nutrition label facing customers to make it obvious. You're welcome. 

Look at the sodium content in most hamburger buns. There's half my diet for the day if I order a hamburger -- sodium naturally occurs in most meats and fish, and in tomatoes, and salt is added to mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard. Pickles are soaked in salt! So there goes my ideal burger - no pickles, no condiments, only meat, lettuce and tomato on a bun. Yippee. 

I was miserable! 

Go on, lecture me about being thankful for what I could eat and remind me that things could be worse. I lectured myself all the time about that. 

The downside of prioritizing the healing of my kidneys and maintaining a low calcium diet for eight years is that I developed osteoporosis (weak bones). In 2020, I fell and fractured my spine! I had a bone density test in 2016 and was told that osteoporosis was starting to develop. In 2021, my doctor ordered another bone density test and this time used the word "severe" to describe it. That freaked me out, especially having already fallen once and injured my back! That's another part of my health journey that I will post about later. 

In June 2020, my kidney test came back at 31 eGFR and serum creatinine 1.73 -- still had CKD. But hey, this was a huge improvement since 2014! And it was all due to two things I did faithfully: drink plenty of water, and stay on a kidney-friendly nutrition path. 

I learned from the Kidney Foundation (https://www.kidney.org/nutrition) what foods are helpful to kidneys and I ate those in spades. They were my primary source of knowledge. I also spoke with a registered dietitian in 2022 when it was time to adjust my diet, when my kidneys were well enough that I could prioritize bone strength. 

It was scary to switch tracks. Even though today (and since early 2025) my blood tests show that my kidneys are 50 or more eGFR and creatinine has actually hit in the normal range! I am still nervous about "too much" calcium, sodium and other minerals. But my bones need it! 

For most of the past decade, I was told by my nephrologist (kidney specialist) not to take any supplements. None. Except cranberry extract, that was safe. I was also told to avoid being in the sun for too long (so that limited my hiking choices). Why? Because I had to go to the ER multiple times due to hypercalcemia and part of the problem was that my kidneys were not handling Vitamin D properly, and when we're in the sun, our bodies make Vitamin D, so that was part of the problem. Sunscreen doesn't have any role in reducing the amount of Vitamin D your body makes from sunlight. I had to wear long sleeves and a hat and limit my time in the sun. It was so frustrating! I love the outdoors!

Meanwhile, I'm dealing with an inflammatory auto-immune disease (sarcoidosis), trying to put that in remission and keep it there, because God only knows where it will decide to deposit granulomas!!! Brain? Lungs? Bone marrow? My daughter was diagnosed with sarcoidosis a year after me -- and she had been working in the yard with me in 2013, so something tells me it's no coincidence and it's not mere genetics -- it's that damn Roundup! If I could prove that I purchased and used the product the year before I had kidney failure and sarcoidosis, I would join the lawsuit! (https://www.lawsuit-information-center.com/roundup-lawsuit.html). 

In my daughter's case, it caused pulmonary fibrosis and was also found in the bone marrow as the root cause of low white blood cells and other blood issues. It's a scary disease. Use gloves and masks! Chemicals absorb through skin. She also breathed fine dust in a workplace environment where sanding was part of the manufacturing process. As for my case, it has never done much in my lungs. My lungs have scattered, small somethings -- it's not growing or interfering, so they don't biopsy it, it's too deep in the lungs, too invasive, so we just assume it's probably sarcoid granulomas. Time will tell. 

But this post is about kidney health. So let me wrap it up by telling you... 

I NEVER HAD KIDNEY STONES OR KIDNEY PAIN, YET MY KIDNEYS WERE SO CLOSE TO COMPLETE FAILURE THAT I LITERALLY WOULD HAVE DIED IF I HAD NOT DECIDED TO GET CHECKED BY A DOCTOR. 

Of all the little issues I had (see yesterday's post), it never occurred to me that I had a kidney problem. I thought I had MS! Kidney failure is a silent killer. So make that call. Get a checkup just to be safe. It's a very simple test, one vial of blood is all they need to see your eGFR and creatinine levels. Make the call now. 

This is me in 2025, petting the wild donkeys of Riverside
Follow @herzenity on Instagram for more fun photos

❤