March 13 is World Kidney Day, a time to focus on the importance of reducing the impact of kidney disease.
One in three adults is at risk of getting the disease.
One young woman said she is lucky to be here because her illness was caught just in the nick of time.
Taylor Myers had just finished her sophomore year at Penn West Clarion University when she went for her annual checkup.
The results of the routine lab work were anything but routine. She was told she was in stage five kidney disease.
At 20 years old Myers was in end-stage kidney failure. Doctors are not sure where her chronic kidney disease stems from, but likely from a virus she picked up.
The symptoms of fatigue, being out of breath, and a sore back are all symptoms that she had easily written off.
“I was a full-time college student. I had a job with the university and I had a job at home I would do on breaks. I was a competitive majorette and also a majorette on campus. I was involved in plenty of on-campus clubs and so it was always go, go, go, go,” Myers said. “I thought I was just out of shape because it was COVID time and I had not been twirling in the gym, so I just wrote it off.”
A normal person’s hemoglobin levels are between 12 and 16. At 7, a person needs a blood transfusion.
“They said if I had not come in when I did and I did not have the doctor who admitted me and actually looked at my blood results I would not have made it through the weekend,” said Myers.
During the next months, Myers had two types of dialysis and started a Facebook page Taylor’s Kidney Krew to find a kidney for a transplant.
She received so much love and support from family and friends and her University community. After a year, her aunt’s sister was a match.
Her story highlights something that many people do not realize. One in three adults is at risk of getting kidney disease and of the people who have kidney disease, nine out of 10 do not know they have it.
Kidney disease often does not have symptoms until it is well progresses. The symptoms appear gradually.
Taylor’s road back wasn’t easy.
After her kidney transplant, she developed a rare form of cancer and had to have chemotherapy treatment.
Two years later though, Taylor’s cancer is in remission and she is on the other side of a successful kidney transplant.
“I’ve been given this chance. I’ve been given a second chance at life with my kidney, so I’m going to use it. I’m going to use it for good and help other people with that because I would rather go through everything I have gone through 100 times over to not have anyone else go through it,” Myers said.
Through it all - amazingly - she kept up with her school work, not missing a beat finishing college. This May she will graduate with honors with her master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology.
Kidney screening is easy to do. The disease can be detected through a blood test or a urine test but it’s a test you usually have to ask your doctor for.
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