As I've alluded to in other threads, I've not been unwell for some time. It all started with headaches. I've been having headaches for some time. I'm not one to have them. Never have been. I just put it down to a shift in work place and pattern (now doing General Practice at the moment). Decided to measure my blood pressure and it was sky high. Went to my GP and we had a chat. Had some blood tests done which show I'm polycythaemic. This is the opposite of anaemia so I've got more blood cells than average.

Whilst under investigation, I had an ultrasound scan which showed one of my kidneys is deformed (lots of cysts). Trying to explain this without medical jargon but essentially your kidneys regulate your blood pressure. If your blood pressure goes down, your kidneys detect this and secrete more stuff to raise the blood pressure. Conversely, if your blood pressure goes up, your kidneys reduce the amount of stuff produced to reduce the blood pressure. One of my kidneys is both deformed and small. We think it's either the cysts producing too much "stuff" to cause my blood pressure to go up or we think the blood supply to the kidney is poor, so it thinks the blood pressure is low and it's producing more "stuff" to raise the blood pressure. Some of the "stuff" comprises of things that cause more blood to be produced too.

The end-point is the same. The small kidney may well be responsible for me being both polycythaemic and hypertensive. The only solution I can see is removing the kidney.

I'm just thinking about the potential consequences and am struggling to cope. I'm not sure how much to tell my family, especially now my sister's getting married and my parents are looking at divorce (though not till after the wedding). There's further implications in terms of mortgage applications - I was planning on buying a house at some point in the future but may well get turned down. The result is I may never be able to own my own house. I may struggle to get health cover if for example I go on holiday etc. Frustratingly, I'm got a big exam in the next few weeks so I'm struggling to keep my head clear. I had today off to go to the hospital and planned to spend the rest of the day revising for the exam. I ended up moping and didn't achieve anything.

Part of me is sad because I always thought that if I had a kidney removed, it would be as a donor to help someone. Now it looks like it'll be for my survival.

Thanks for your patience.

Wow, sorry to hear that

I'm guessing in these cases they don't offer you a kidney transplant, just whip the dodgy one out, yes? can it not be "managed" with drugs, or is it advisable to have it removed? Is this something that would be treated as an emergency operation, or is it one that you'd have to go on a waiting list to have done?

Although there's never a good time for these things, it does seem to have cropped up at an unfortunate time for you and your family, hope you can put it to one side of your mind to concentrate on your exams.

Eep. That's sad to hear.

Oli is your man to talk to, I reckon. Remember he donated a kidney a couple of years ago.

In any case, I really hope it all works out for the best whatever happens. It's hard to come up with sensible words at times like this.

Theoretically, I should be fine as one kidney is completely healthy and they just whip out the unhealthy one. I think it's more the prospect of what may be coming that really concerns me. Fear of the unknown.

Life is a bitch. All we can do is make the best of it we can.

Now, you have a lot going on in your life, and it's not a good time for your body to throw a spanner in the works. Unfortunately, you rather depend on your body to exist.

If you can do it, try to get through the exams, and then look after Number One. Get yourself healthy. The other stuff will just have to happen and be dealt with as best it can.

You know you have support and friendship here any time you need it.

Sorry to hear it. Thanks to an interesting alignment of genetics, my sister was born with 4 kidneys - 2 of which were/are rather undeveloped and don't do much apart from give her hell with infections.
Anyway, I do hope things return to 'normality' for you as soon as they can, and at least we all know someone here who's been down this road.
Let us know how things go!

Sorry to hear that mate, I spose the only advice I can give is to try and take each day as it comes.

That's not great and the timing really sucks. The only information/reassurance I can offer with any knowledge is that it shouldn't prevent you from getting a mortgage at all, you may have to pay slightly higher life insurance premiums, but in my years of carrying out mortgage applications I never had to turn one down for medical reasons and there were some people in a much worse situation than you. After all, if you had donated a kidney to save someone else, you wouldn't be penalised for it on that front.

Easier said than done RE: the putting it aside and concentrating on your exam I know, but the best bet is to get that complication out of the way and then deal with it as best you can, are you able to get treated for the hypertension in the meantime, does your employer or GP office offer any kind of counselling services?

Not sure what else I can add to what has already been said.

My father in law had only one kidney from birth AFAIK, but I never knew that it affected him either physiologically or financially. So long as your other kidney is healthy, then I can't see that you need to worry.

Of course, there are major issues if the other one becomes unhealthy, but I don't see what you can do about that. As unpleasant as the whole business is, it seems to me that you are going to have to go ahead and have the bad one removed before the hypertension causes extensive damage. You know the dangers there!

All the best, c_w.

Hope you get well soon Cloaked Wolf, just keep your head clear and do everything you can do, treat everything like a problem that requires a solution, I wouldn't worry about the divorce/wedding, those things are momentous but just politics at the end of the day, and not as important as family and health.

Crappy news to say the least and it's obviously a worry. You can live happily with one of most things though so long as you adjust.

According to the kidney foundation clicky


I was surprised it is so many but then that should be reassuring.


Although it does go on to say that you have to watch for things like high blood pressure and so on but life span is as equal as to those with two.

So, scary stuff but then it turns out it shouldn't be a major problem in the long run so long as you just keep a check on some things with your GP. Just put yourself and your health first, this is a time where you have to be selfish.

I'm sorry to learn of your woes, CW.

I know you're probably not looking for sympathy, but you have my best wishes for rapid and lasting recovery.

^ aye what he says.

In the hunt for a bit of info I may have come across a bit unsympathetic and matteroffact which was not my intent.

as he says still scays but good to know overall