For many people with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), it’s not easy. You don’t really think of all the crazy things that happen when you get CKD. The kidneys play a big part in your everyday health. You know (or may not know) the kidneys produce urine and subsequently you pee it out. You know that this stuff is just “waste” but honestly, do you really know what it is?

The kidneys act as filters for your body. When your kidneys start to fail, the filtration process gets worse, and while it may produce more urine at first (common for diabetics), it’s actually not filtering as much of the “poison” in your body. So what happens is that the poisons in your body are still in there, and wreaking havoc on your body.

While this may sound horrible, and it is, there are always ways around it. For people with stage 5 CKD, they must go on dialysis. There is no one, and I repeat no one that will say with any honesty that dialysis “isn’t that bad”. We hate it. Dialysis sucks. Anyone that has gone through it will tell you that it’s horrible.

But to the point of this whole blog post. Most people who are on dialysis and have CKD don’t look like they’ve got a chronic illness. As a matter of a fact, the people you work with could very well have it and you’d never know. But you better believe they are not “fine”.

Here’s some advice I tell everyone and I try to heed it myself. Some people really make it hard for me. There are a lot of people with illnesses and chronic conditions that you could never see. It won’t even be apparent. You know when you see that one person who parked in the handicap section and didn’t even look sick? He or she could very well be sick and need that spot. Don’t be rude and yell at them for parking in a handicap spot. You might consider asking them if they’re allowed to park there. But don’t be rude.

Treat everyone like you want to be treated. If you like being yelled at and harassed, then okay, by all means, continue to do so. But really, if you treat people nicely, you’ll get a nice response most of the time.

If you’re looking for resources for CKD or Dialysis, I’d recommend these sites. They really helped me out when I was looking for answers:

• Davita – I haven’t used their dialysis centers, but I hear they’re pretty nice. Good resource for recipes and just plain info about CKD and more.
• I hate dialysis – This is a great site for anything dialysis. This is a site made by patients for patients.

Do you have a story to tell? Any experience? Tips, tricks and advice?