Jenni’s Story

Our kidney story began in the summer of 2022 when out of the blue the GP advised my husband, Gareth, that his kidney function was lower than expected.

After months of tests and scans it was confirmed that Gareth had CKD at the age of 40. 

A diagnosis of a chronic illness has a serious impact on mental health as well as your physical health. 

Gareth struggles with a lot of the symptoms of CKD daily, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, itchy skin and muscle cramps.

Around 18 months after his diagnosis he changed his job, this wasn’t a decision that was made lightly as he had worked incredibly hard to achieve his promotion only a few years before and he understandably didn’t want to give this up. However, the pressure of his job along with the CKD was not helping his blood pressure and health must come first.

Shortly after this his nephrologist decided that a kidney biopsy would be required as his kidney function had dropped at two consecutive appointments, this confirmed the diagnosis of IGA Nephropathy, for which there are limited treatments and sadly no cure. One of the worst symptoms Gareth suffers with is fatigue and after working all day his body physically aches with exhaustion. Gareth takes medication to hopefully keep his blood pressure under control and also try and ease the protein leakage, this is reviewed every 3 months and the hope is that it slows down the progression of CKD along with eating a healthy diet with few processed foods and a reduced salt intake we hope that his kidney function remains stable for the foreseeable future but as we know CKD is unpredictable.