"You have a kidney failure. I highly recommend you meet a kidney specialist as soon as possible." A voice message left by our general physician, September 2012.
When we heard this, we were not sure if a term as drastic as kidney failure was just because our general physician wasn't very well versed with English and felt this was the best translation available, was he being the true German who would freak out compared to an Indian, or do we really have this situation on our hands.
The next morning on speaking with the general physician, we learnt that indeed we had a new situation on our hands. I was highly anaemic - renal anaemia, there was very high protein levels in the urine and the creatinine in the blood was above normal too - all of it indicating a Chronic Kidney Disease.
This was shocking to us because I was absolutely asymptomatic. I was doing my occasional cycling, playing 3-4 games of indoor badminton couple of times a week, working, doing my chores at home and leading a perfectly normal life. I had no hypertension or diabetes either.
Getting an IMMEDIATE appointment with specialists in Germany with public insurance is a challenge. The general physician gave me a list of specialists around Heidelberg and I met the one we got the earliest date with - thankfully we waited only for 2 days.
The kidney specialist said, "we could do a biopsy to find out the cause, but there's no guarantee that it will be conclusive. Eventually, you will need to get dialysis or a transplant. There are no medications to treat this condition." The only thing I could do was reduce my intake of protein to lengthen the process of deterioration of the kidneys.
This was a bigger shocker!!!
A transplant seemed inevitable. Given all complications of a transplant and the life long conditions it poses, we realized our life just got a LOT MORE uncertain now.
When we heard this, we were not sure if a term as drastic as kidney failure was just because our general physician wasn't very well versed with English and felt this was the best translation available, was he being the true German who would freak out compared to an Indian, or do we really have this situation on our hands.
The next morning on speaking with the general physician, we learnt that indeed we had a new situation on our hands. I was highly anaemic - renal anaemia, there was very high protein levels in the urine and the creatinine in the blood was above normal too - all of it indicating a Chronic Kidney Disease.
This was shocking to us because I was absolutely asymptomatic. I was doing my occasional cycling, playing 3-4 games of indoor badminton couple of times a week, working, doing my chores at home and leading a perfectly normal life. I had no hypertension or diabetes either.
Getting an IMMEDIATE appointment with specialists in Germany with public insurance is a challenge. The general physician gave me a list of specialists around Heidelberg and I met the one we got the earliest date with - thankfully we waited only for 2 days.
The kidney specialist said, "we could do a biopsy to find out the cause, but there's no guarantee that it will be conclusive. Eventually, you will need to get dialysis or a transplant. There are no medications to treat this condition." The only thing I could do was reduce my intake of protein to lengthen the process of deterioration of the kidneys.
This was a bigger shocker!!!
A transplant seemed inevitable. Given all complications of a transplant and the life long conditions it poses, we realized our life just got a LOT MORE uncertain now.
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