Hi readers!
A New York Times best-selling author said in one of his talks:
“Choose your battle or the battle will choose you”
Choosing your battles is a high-value skill that conserves our limited energy, time, and mental capacity for issues that genuinely matter to our long-term success and peace. But what will happen if the battle chooses you?
Scientific American published on March 17th, 2026, an article titled “From dialysis to distress” which is all about kidneys and its failure and is a must read for all of us irrespective of being young and old. The article narrated the stories of the patients, and their ordeal when they suddenly became aware of their kidney’s malfunctioning or when the battle chooses them to fight for the health of their kidneys.
Kidney: a vital organ of the body filter ~200 quarts of blood daily to remove waste, excess fluids from the blood, manage blood pressure, fluid/electrolyte balance, and stimulate red blood cell production but, kidneys can also get problems like stones, infections, and acute failure, often caused by diabetes and high blood pressure or by a rare genetic conditions, sickle cell disease or even certain medications. The affected person can get high blood pressure, dark urine and swollen feet and legs due to fluid retention. It takes on people quietly and secretly without being seen.
There are nearly 36 million adults in the U.S. who live with some degree of kidney dysfunction.
When the body’s two kidneys work well, they filter about half a cup of blood every minute, shedding waste products and excess fluids to make urine. It’s a complex operation, rely on roughly a million tiny filtering units: the nephrons, in each kidney to maintain a balance of water and minerals in the bloodstream. But kidneys also have a built-in buffer as nature has provided more kidney functions “so that we could survive the loss of a kidney.”
Dialysis is one of the life-sustaining treatments for kidney failure that filters waste, extra salt, and fluids from the blood when kidneys can no longer perform these functions. Charlotte Huff and Lauren Gravitz from Scientific American described the stories of few kidney patients who went through four hours of dialysis at a clinic. Placed below are the details of the experiences of those patients that are enough to let us know how miserable it would be if someone’s kidnyies starts malfumctioning.
First of the patients felt if he is arrested the moment his blood started circulating his body and the filtering machine. He came to the clinic wearing three layers of cloth, a wool cap and numerous extra blankets. Despite this, he felt cold which he attributed to his blood cooling during the journey between man and machine says the first patient: a 46-year-old father of the two kids who doesn’t feel his blood leaving his body and entering the dialysis machine.
Although, the dialysis helped him mitigated the symptoms, but chronic kidney disease alters the contours of his daily life and other challenges including change in diet.
The second patient was born with only one kidney which he didn’t know until it failed. In 2006, at the age of 26, he suffered from dizziness and uncontrolled vomiting. He suspected food poisoning and rushed to the emergency where he was diagnosed with kidney failure and that he has only one kidney. He rushed for the dialysis for the first time and kept visiting the clinic each week for 18 months until someone donated him a kidney.
Kidneys from living donors usually last for 15 to 20 years on the average but the first patient’s transplanted organ failed after 13 years because he was getting fewer medical checkups in the early months of the COVID pandemic to minimize his exposure to the virus. Finally, he returned to dialysis again. He didn’t believed people saying, “Oh you have dialysis? No problem, you will be fine”, but nothing can replicate the intricate working of a healthy kidney. According to the patient, “It’s like running a marathon when you’re sitting in a chair, and getting your blood cleaned and fluids pulled out,”. It’s hard on the body, hard on your heart, hard on your muscles, and hard on a lot of things. He felt dry and itchy skin and overall body fatigue. Sometimes during the dialysis sessions, violent muscle cramps hit his legs and abdomen which doesn’t go away easily. Occasionally his vision blurred toward the end of a treatment which is a temporary side effect of the dialysis.
The second patient was of 39 years and was on dialysis for about 25 years. He was diagnosed at the age 10 with a disease called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, in which scar tissue buildup can lead to kidney failure. By the age of 13, doctors told him he needed to start dialysis or get a kidney transplant. His mother donated one of her kidneys, but the original disease was so aggressive that it started damaging the transplanted organ within a few months. It lasted for about two years.
The third patient instead of going to a haemodialysis clinic, tried peritoneal dialysis in which solution flows through an abdominal lining called the peritoneum and then into the abdominal cavity to filter waste from the blood and excess fluids from the body. It’s typically done daily at home. The patient says, that when he does home dialysis three to four evenings every week, he notices less strain on his body compared to when he went to the clinic.
According to him, each treatment requires fresh dialysis solution: a combination of a sugar called dextrose and other chemicals like those found in the body which he makes at home. The entire process is of seven-hours, and he doesn’t need to interrupt the rest of his daily routine to complete the procedure.
Before using the solution, he tests each batch to ensure the filtered water used in it is sterile. He wears mask and gloves when he inserts the needles into his arm that withdraw his blood and then return it. He periodically checks his blood pressure to make sure it’s not too high or too low.
Sometimes he falls into light sleep toward the end and awake when he senses the machine is slowing down. After it’s over, he always experiences a dialysis mental fog which delayed the response of simple questions however, a good night’s sleep is the only remedy that restored 80 to 90 percent of the usual energy level.
The fourth patient felt that her blood pressure had been high since her first year of college. Her doctors hadn’t suggested any other medication except the blood pressure pills, while she had no idea that hypertension posed a serious risk to her kidneys. At the age of 29, when she had to be hospitalized with vomiting and severe shortness of breath, that she learned about her limited kidney function. By then, her disease had already advanced to stage 5. Her diet and social lifestyle changed overnight. She stopped drinking alcohol because clinicians advised her to strictly limit her consumption of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and other common nutrients. she subsisted largely on berries, white rice, shrimp, salmon and water. No canned foods. No deli meats. Her dietitian advised her to add chicken, red meat, sweet potatoes and other kidney friendly foods to her diet.
As many as nine in 10 adults with kidney disease don’t realize they have it, because the damage can progress for years without symptoms. The low detection rate is a major problem. Also, the people are often less informed about the risk factors for kidney disease compared with the risks for heart trouble and other chronic conditions, besides there’s no recommended universal kidney screening.
A study reported in 2024 in the American Journal of Nephrology for which researchers interviewed 103 adults from the U.S. and elsewhere. Nearly 38 percent of people with kidney disease reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, as well as sleeping difficulties. According to a clinical psychologist, advanced disease can also cause someone to feel loneliness, alienation, isolation, and separateness. The study also reported higher risk of kidney diseases in the U.S, where 20 percent of black adults have it, compared with 14 percent of Asian and Hispanic adults and 12 percent of white adults.
The fifth patient has been on the transplant list for nearly three years when, she received the call about an available kidney. She got kidney transplant, but the older one was not removed. Surgeons typically leave the original kidneys behind to avoid the risks involved with removing them because the nonfunctioning organs tend to shrink over time. The patient avoids eating sushi, unpasteurized cheeses, and other foods that might pose a risk to her new organ. Unlike dialysis patients, she drinks at least eight cups of water daily as the recipients of successful transplants are encouraged to take in fluid and only one cup of coffee or tea, less than what she consumed before her transplant.
Just staying “alive” is a full-time job for people on dialysis, says a psychologist who helps them find ways to retain their sense of autonomy, part of which involves thinking through why they recommit to treatment week after week. After five years of trips to a dialysis clinic, patient’s stamina has wilted. At times, he says, his body feels more like that of a 70-year-old than a 40 plus. He can walk only half a mile instead of two to three, but I feel like I still have a lot of life ahead of me.”
The take home message is when a battle chooses you, you must
shift from strategic selection to active, high-stakes management. Focus on what you can control, while accepting the reality of the situation, get periodic checkup of your kidnies, and cultivate resilience. To navigate the ordeal, control your focus, your procedures, and your emotional response, leverage resilience and support. Connect with your inner strength or spiritual beliefs for endurance.
That’s all for now dear readers. Pl. take good care of yourself your kidneys. See you again, Bye
