PKD Life - Summer 2020 - 14

MY PKD LIFE
Counting My
Blessings
Thanks to a selfl ess gift from my brother,
I can do all my favorite things again.
By Josh Berka, as told to Leslie Pepper
P
KD runs throughout my family. My dad,
my uncle, my aunt, my grandmother, and a
couple of my cousins all had the disease. I
don't have any memory of being diagnosed,
though my brother Jeff -who's 19 years older than
me-says I was around 5 years old. I do recall having
an ultrasound at around 18 that showed a lot of cysts.
I don't remember thinking anything specifi c, other
than I'd just have to deal with whatever came my way.
WORRISOME SYMPTOMS
For the most part during my 20s, I didn't have any
symptoms other than high blood pressure, which
medicine kept under control. But about a year ago,
when I was 30, my blood pressure started really
climbing. I began to develop severe headaches, and
I couldn't drive at times because I would have literally
fallen asleep at the wheel. Doctors adjusted my
meds to get it under control again.
At around the same time, I felt some soreness
around my back. But within a few days, it went from
feeling like I had slept wrong to feeling like I was
constantly being hit with a pickax.
I went to the emergency room, and they took
some pictures. Doctors discovered one of my cysts
had ruptured, causing an internal bleed. My kidneys
were also very enlarged. I stayed in the hospital
for a few days, and the bleed resolved itself.
At the follow-up with my nephrologist, I got some
devastating news: My kidneys were swollen and full
of fl uid, my blood pressure was too high, and my
kidney function was very poor. I was in stage 5 renal
failure. The doctor said I'd need dialysis at some
point, as well as a kidney transplant.
14 PKD LIFE * SUMMER 2020
A BROTHER'S GIFT
I did not want to do dialysis. And I knew that I wasn't
going to last another year with those kidneys in my
body. Luckily, I already had a potential kidney donor.
Jeff is a dialysis nurse and had known for years
that I'd likely need a transplant. He and his wife
had talked about it, and he'd told me previously,
" When you need it, I'm going to give you a kidney. "
He knew the risks involved, and he was pretty set
on doing it if he was a match. I knew we were the
same blood type, so I was pretty confi dent he'd be a
match. Turns out, thank goodness, he was.
I had both kidneys removed in November 2019.
They went in laparoscopically, and the surgery itself
went pretty smoothly. Unfortunately, the tissue and
fl uid loss caused some complications, but after about
a month my body was ready for the new kidney.
The worst part
of the process
was having to
be away from
his family,
says Josh,
who's happy
he is back to
his favorite
hobby-fi shing.
COURTESY OF TH E BERKA FAMILY
PKD Life - Summer 2020

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