Discovery

Up until my early 30’s, I’d always thought of myself as fairly healthy. In 2009, my cholesterol, blood pressure, and BMI were in the normal range. I was a skinny guy who enjoyed lower-impact activities like beach volleyball and yoga. I didn’t smoke and wasn’t diabetic. I drank occasionally, ate omnivorously, and felt pretty good overall. I consumed a good share of veggies and fruits, but I also ate meat.

In my late 20s, I was feeling healthy enough to skip on a couple years of physical exams, but I had recently gone in for a checkup. 

And so, I happened to be at a Five Guys chomping on a huge cheeseburger when I got the call.

“Hello, Mr. Tran,” said the receptionist. “We need you to come back and do another blood and urine test."

“Really? Why, what happened?"

“Well, the doctor thinks your numbers for the protein level in your urine were above the normal range. He wants to double-check to make sure it wasn’t an anomaly.”

“OK.”

This didn’t sound good, I thought. I put the cheeseburger down, looked at it, and told my friend Omar sitting across from me what I’d just heard.

Another blood and urine test yielded similar results, so my doctor determined that I probably had a Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) called IgA nephropathy. After a biopsy of my kidney tissue confirmed it, I tried to settle into the news. It was a serious, but treatable disease. No known cause or cure. I was at Stage 3, meaning about 40% of my kidney function remained. It was likely that my kidney function would diminish over time, and I could try to manage it with diet and exercise to slow the disease's progression. My symptoms of the time weren’t so bad: foamy urine, some dry, slightyly itchy skin. As I said, I felt fine.