World Kidney Day is March 10th.

A day where we pause to educate and celebrate kidney health and kidney warriors.

My journey started in 2009.

It was a routine check-up at the doctor’s office on campus, (shout out to Spelman )and the doctor checked my urine and noticed I had a large amount of protein spilling into my urine. She brought me into the office and asked me a few questions about my protein and if I had ever had this happen before. She then informed me she wanted to follow up with a 24-hour urine sample to get a better measurement of how much protein I was spilling.

The doctor recommended I see a nephrologist, a doctor who specializes in Kidney research and health. I was able to get an appointment with a doctor right away at home back in Baltimore. I flew home to see the doctor and was informed I needed to get a kidney biopsy.

I scheduled it for the day after my 20th birthday. And after the biopsy, my life changed forever.

I found out that had been suffering from kidney failure for 5 years with a disease called FSGS, and my kidneys were only functioning at only 50%. When I found this out I was packing for my internship in Sacramento, California, and prepping financially for a fall semester in Beijing, China. I’ll be sharing more about my life in college with my diagnosis but you better believe I didn’t let it stop me.

I am forever grateful that a simple routine at my hospital on my beautiful college campus of Spelman was able to detect something that was silently threatening my health. And I was able to take immediate action to begin to center my life around how to fit my new disease with my big plans.