By Cynthia Flash
Latina Brooks is a kidney disease success story. But it hasn’t been easy. She’s had to work at it.
Born in Detroit, she has moved countless times throughout her 42 years. She is a domestic violence survivor and she has been homeless. Four years ago, weighing 409 pounds, she was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease.
Brooks was like one in 10 American adults who have kidney disease and may not know it because the symptoms are subtle until the damage is severe. Two more years passed, and her kidneys stopped working completely.
Chronic kidney failure is fatal unless a person gets regular dialysis treatments or a kidney transplant. While African Americans make up 12 percent of the overall population, they are about 35 percent of people on dialysis (using a machine to clean blood and remove fluid from the body). One reason is that they experience high rates of diabetes and high blood pressure, the most common causes of kidney disease.
Brooks went to Northwest Kidney Centers’ Lake City clinic three times a week for a half day of blood-cleansing, life-sustaining dialysis treatments.
Even with the treatments she felt nauseous and exhausted most of the time. Brooks was so depressed she “lived like I was dying,” she said. So she got mad. She was mad at the doctors and didn’t feel in control. Her solution was to take matters into her own hands. After training at Northwest Kidney Centers, she now does her own dialysis treatments, on her own schedule, at home.
Her 23-year-old daughter, Candace Moore, helps her set up and prepare the dialysis machine. “She is my angel,” said Brooks, who lives next door to Moore in Lake City.
“Since I gained control with home dialysis, I can talk to my doctor. Instead of him telling me what to do, I tell him what I need. It helped me be more successful with the disease,” Brooks said.
Brooks also underwent gastric sleeve surgery to help her lose weight. She works out at a gym, and at home she lifts weights and does yoga. She monitors her diet with help from her Northwest Kidney Centers dietitian, who has taught her to cook with herbs instead of salt, which is damaging to kidneys.
So far, Brooks has lost 239 pounds and feels good. She gives herself dialysis treatments five times a week, four hours at a time, and feels in control. More frequent treatments lessen peaks and valleys in her system, and she has fewer side effects.
She said she feels a sense of power because she became a part of her health care. Her life experiences, she said, have made her want to help others. She is earning a bachelor’s degree in health science and hopes to become a physician’s assistant.
“I feel really good, actually, as far as being 42 and being able to do for myself still.”
March is National Kidney Month. It’s a great time to ask your health care provider for a simple kidney checkup. A blood pressure reading plus urine and blood samples can reassure you that things are okay. If you learn you have kidney problems, you can find out how to change your lifestyle to include healthier habits and keep the disease from getting worse. For more information go to www.nwkidney.org.
