In 2017, while working in Melbourne, Australia, I became unable to walk three city blocks without stopping to catch my breath. Within hours of reaching the ER, I’d had two blood transfusions and was in the ICU. I found out one kidney had never fully developed, and the other was only 2% functional. I spent 15 months on hemodialysis before receiving a transplant in 2018. Two and a half years later, my body rejected it. In August 2024, I was back on dialysis. One in 3 Americans is at risk for kidney disease. That’s not a statistic lawmakers can afford [...]

I was first diagnosed with kidney disease in 2001, shortly after the birth of my second daughter. What doctors thought was pregnancy-related high blood pressure turned out to be the start of kidney failure. For years, I tried to push forward, working full time and raising my girls, until my health declined sharply in 2010, and I went into a hypertensive crisis. I started peritoneal dialysis in 2011, which allowed me to keep working for a time. But, when I eventually had to switch to hemodialysis, the treatment completely drained me. My work hours dropped from full time to part [...]

My sister and I have polycystic kidney disease and shared the same dialysis schedule for years. I’ve been on dialysis nearly 15 years, surviving heart surgery and breast cancer before receiving a kidney transplant last October. My sister was not so lucky. After losing private insurance through divorce, she refused disability, believing she couldn’t survive on those benefits. Our family paid out of pocket to keep her on dialysis. By the time she got coverage, she had already started to give up. Her transplant failed. She passed away two years ago. When dialysis patients feel abandoned by the system, they [...]

During my final year of college, I nearly died. What began as abdominal pain, misdiagnosed and mistreated, spiraled into sepsis that was shutting down my organs one by one. By the time I reached the hospital, I needed four units of blood and four hours of emergency dialysis before I could even have surgery. I was a college student on my parents' private insurance with no clue what the next steps were. That diagnosis changed everything. But instead of letting it define me, it drove me. I finished my degree, continued working full-time and became an advocate for what I [...]

My husband Greg was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease in 2006. He spent nearly seven years on dialysis before receiving a kidney transplant in 2013. For over a decade, that transplant gave him his life back. Then, in late 2023, complications from COVID caused his transplant to fail, and in October 2024, he returned to dialysis. The second time has been far harder — not because anything is different, but because we already know this fight is physically, emotionally and financially draining. When Greg was first diagnosed, we had private insurance. We received a letter warning us that we were [...]

I have been on hemodialysis for four years. My grandmother was also on dialysis. I started just a year or two after she did. So when I say kidney disease runs in my family, I mean it in the most personal way possible. Dialysis is exhausting. You sit for four to five hours at a time, sometimes dealing with staff who aren't always sensitive to what patients are going through. I am also managing more than just kidney failure. I am a below-the-knee amputee facing a second amputation, and that exhaustion becomes almost unbearable. I started on employer-sponsored private insurance [...]

I never knew I was sick. I went to the doctor’s office for a routine procedure, and the lab results sent me straight to the hospital. That was how I learned my kidneys were failing. There was no warning and no symptoms. I was working at AT&T at the time and had private insurance that carried me through. I received a kidney transplant. I was fortunate. My wife worked, and I had faith, family and friends. Not everyone has these luxuries. Now, because of a recent Supreme Court ruling, private insurers can push newly diagnosed dialysis patients off their coverage [...]

To The REVIEW: When I lost my second kidney in my 50s, I was suddenly thrown into a world of dialysis, medical bills and fear. I was self-employed and carried my own insurance, but as my health declined, I became too sick to work. Dialysis is exhausting enough on its own. No patients should also have to spend months or years fighting to keep health coverage and stay financially afloat. Yet, that was my reality. It took two and a half years of fighting before I was finally approved for disability benefits. During that time, medical bills piled up, and [...]

My father, Earl, treated dialysis like going to work. Diagnosed with diabetes and high blood pressure, he went on dialysis in 2014 and never let it slow him down. He lost weight, got healthier, and even won a Halloween costume contest that fall (my sister dressed him up as a wizard). He was in his 70s and furious about it. That photo is one of our family’s most treasured memories. Through his dialysis journey, I watched my dad find a new community and family at his clinic. I also saw firsthand how vulnerable that lifeline can be and how much [...]

When I was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease in 2017, I was working for a major U.S. airline carrier with strong health insurance coverage. During COVID, as a flight attendant and flight service duty manager with 30 years of experience, I accepted an early-out retirement package. Dialysis had made it increasingly difficult to continue working, and my doctor advised it, given my high risk. As part of that package, I kept active employee-rate health coverage for 36 months. This stability was invaluable and allowed me to delay enrolling in Medicare until the month of my transplant. No dialysis patient should [...]