Recovery from kidney disease and thrombosis: a personal story

I was around 10 years old when mum was taken to hospital. I don’t remember too much about how she got to be where she was but I know that for weeks while she was there, I would visit twice a day, and was being cared for by my older siblings and my nan.

She was getting a lot of heat, pain and swelling in her lower right leg and gaining a lot of weight rapidly. She was swelling like a balloon all over her body, especially her eyes, feet, and ankles. She was becoming unrecognisable.

She went to see her doctor who immediately sent her to the hospital as her urine was foamy and filled with protein, and she had severe water retention. 

Mum was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in her leg, a common complication associated with a kidney disease called Nephrotic Syndrome. Mum was in a bad way and it was a worrying time for us all.

It’s weird because as a kid you don’t tend to worry about your parents and you think they’ll be around forever. Mum wasn’t a complainer and didn’t have much support. She was a make-doer an optimist, living with a sense of denial, that things would sort themselves out if they were left long enough.

Like many, going to the doctor for mum wasn’t something she would do unless it was serious, and this turned out to be life-threatening!

She spent the next few weeks in hospital while they started treatment to safely clear the blood clot in her leg to prevent it from venturing anywhere else in the body and potentially damaging other organs such as the heart and lungs. She was put on blood thinners, a low sodium diet, had to wear compression stockings and keep her leg elevated in bed.

Mum was only 43 and she was one of the lucky ones. 10% – 30% of people will die within one month of diagnosis of DVT and for 25% of people, the first sign they have one will be sudden unexpected death.

Although mum wasn’t statistically high risk for these conditions, there are signs something wasn't right e.g., swelling/heat and pain in her legs, rapid weight gain, puffy eyes, and frothy urine. Had she not gotten the treatment when she did, other complications would ensue which would have put her at high risk of dying from blood clots and if not suffering from long-term chronic health diseases such as kidney failure and cardiovascular disease.