05/20/2026
For years, he felt completely fine.
He played hockey, basketball, and pickleball. Walked the dog. Worked long surgical days as a podiatrist. The only thing that seemed “off” was the foamy urine he noticed almost 10 years ago. At first, it didn’t seem like a big deal. No pain. No fatigue. No symptoms that screamed kidney disease.
Then the numbers started changing.
His kidney function slowly dropped into the 40s… then 30… then 25. Every lab report carried the same warning: dialysis or transplant could be in the future. And despite seeing nephrologists, changing medications, trying strict diets, Ayurveda, supplements, juicing, and cutting out foods he loved, he still felt like nobody could explain why this was happening.
What made it harder was that he had spent his whole life helping other people. For more than 40 years, he worked in surgery, taking care of patients while carrying the stress of being responsible for them. Even now, past retirement age, he keeps working because his children still need support. “I’m okay to stop tomorrow,” he admitted. “But finances are still necessitating me to continue.”
Other pieces of the story only started connecting later: high blood pressure since his 20s, thyroid issues no one fully explained, gout attacks, chronic stress after losing his mother at 67, decades of exposure to chemicals and dust in podiatry clinics, and even years of ignoring the warning signs because he felt healthy enough to keep pushing through.
What stood out most was how human he was through all of it. He joked about losing control around desserts on cruises, talked about his love for sports and his cottage trips for mental health, and admitted he isn’t always the “best patient.” But underneath the humor was someone trying hard to hold onto normal life while quietly carrying the fear of watching his kidney numbers fall faster every year.
And maybe that’s the hardest part of kidney disease: you can look healthy, feel mostly normal, stay active, keep working, and still be losing kidney function in the background without fully understanding why.
Picture idea:
A tired but determined man sitting alone at a kitchen table late at night after checking hi…
