Families have a lot in common, and something mine shares is kidney disease. Both my late mother and I who have suffered from this have had to receive life-saving dialysis treatments that allowed our bodies to continue to function. At the beginning of my dialysis journey, I had insurance through my employer, which covered the costs of these pricey treatments. However, they took up most of my time and energy, and I inevitably had to leave my job. Being unable to work full-time is a persistent problem for patients on dialysis. Because of this, I now live on disability and [...]

Dear Editor: Starting dialysis at a young age was hard. I had only recently finished high school, and adjusting to life on dialysis when I was still a teenager was overwhelming. It was even more difficult because I didn’t have reliable access to affordable Medigap coverage for the costs Medicare didn’t pay. Not every state requires Medigap plans to be available to patients under 65, so unless you qualify for disability or another form of coverage, patients are on the hook for what Medicare doesn’t cover. Even when I was able to work before my transplant kidney failed, the premiums [...]

My life with kidney disease has been one filled with battles. In 2010, I had a double transplant surgery and received a new kidney and liver. Unfortunately, the transplant kidney failed three years ago, and I needed dialysis treatment. These life-saving treatments can be time-consuming, and patients often find themselves unable to work. Working and being on dialysis can be very hard on someone. I’m lucky that I have Medicare covering the majority of the costs and additional insurance paying for what Medicare didn’t before I turned 65. However, many don’t have the benefit of extra insurance picking up where [...]

Finding out my kidneys were failing was shocking. During a surgery to remove a portion of one kidney affected by cancer, things took an unexpected turn. Rather than losing a small portion of function in one kidney, I was left with one kidney only functioning at 20 percent. Thanks to an excellent nephrologist, though, I was able to put off starting dialysis for a decade. Since then, two things that have helped a great deal are the flexibility of my home treatments and the access I’ve had to coverage for dialysis. While I received coverage for the portion of treatment [...]