I guess the title says it all. Diet or death is my option. I have already faced my mortality and come to grips that someday I would die but I always hoped that it would be later than sooner. This is going to be hard for me as I am 50 and have lived a half of century so I know how easy it is to go back to my old habits. My mom died September 11th 1998 of a horrible disease called calciphylaxis. She had contracted calciphylaxis 2 years earlier while she had CKD. Chronic Kidney Disease. There was a lot of extenuating factors that contributed to her condition but the funny thing is that she hadn’t reached the point of dialysis. Usually dialysis is a major contributing factor in the disease. Watching her die was a horrible thing for me because in my mind she just couldn’t die.
Have you guessed already that my mom was overweight? On top of that she had diabetes, had a heart attack at 60 due to clogged arteries high blood pressure and bore the family trait of having blood clots. Wow, she was a tough bird to make it to 72.
For close to a year I noticed that I was peeing clear and thought to myself wow I am really hydrated and while visiting my mother in the hospital in her last days I started having a super sharp pain shoot through my back. I thought it was stress and attributed it to that and went about my business. A week after she died I got her old blood pressure cuff and took my blood pressure. It was a staggering 214 over 130 so I had made an appointment at a clinic and when the nurse took my blood pressure she told me to go to the emergency room right away because she was scared that I was going to have a hypertensive event. Needless to say about $1500 later I was told I had kidney damage due to the hypertension.
I later found out that the hypertension was due to my diabetes which I had since I was 17. Have you guessed that I am fat? Have you guessed that I never took care of myself? As I look back as a family we always celebrated with food. Mom had always comforted me with food. It also didn’t help that I was constantly on the road for 26 years traveling for my job and not eating too well going back to the motel and lying on the bed watching TV. I have no one to blame but myself.
My creatinine is now 3.16 up from 1.8 when I was first diagnosed with CKD. My BUN is 38. These are the markers for CKD and when your creatinine hits the magic 6 you are on dialysis, transplanted or dying. The doctor I go to is managing my hypertension and diabetes very well but he cannot manage my diet. He is a good doctor and is taking care of my conditions as well as he can.
This journal is of my trials and tribulations of my CKD, my diet or death.
I have done a lot of research into my condition and now is the time to act. I have quit smoking as of a week ago apparently the smoke narrows the blood vessels feeding the kidneys and contributes to heavy metal toxicity. I need to give up alcohol so I finished my last drink last night for quite a while as apparently it is hard on the kidneys to process. I can’t have any more diet soda which I drink a lot of because that too is hard for the kidneys to process. No more massive amounts of coffee or tea I will allow myself one cup of coffee in the morning and only herbal tea for me.
I have my treadmill to start a walking routine so I can get into better shape. I will walk instead of smoking or drinking and I will start on a diet. More on my diet as I progress.
I start my new life at 6’2” and 290lbs alcohol, tobacco, diet soda and tea free.
So can a 50 year old male deeply rooted in his ways make such a lifestyle change?
My next doctor’s appointment is in 90 days so only time will tell.
