What a difference a year makes

Today is the one-year anniversary of Anna Nicole Smith's death. Why am I writing about this on the kidney blog? Well it just so happens that this date was also the beginning of our kidney transplant journey one year ago.

I remember hearing the news about Anna Nicole's death and needed to call my Anna right away. She is the queen of all things Hollywood you see and we have an unsaid pact to always keep one another up to speed on all the celebrity gossip. I called and to my surprise Anna didn't know anything about Anna Nicole's death. I could hear Anna's mother Diane in the background saying "Whaaaat, how did we not know that?" Come to find out the reason why Anna didn't know about this sensationalized death was because this was the day her kidneys started shutting down. Well, if I'm being technical, her kidneys started shutting down years ago. But on this date one year ago, her kidney function hit a point that she could no longer resume a normal daily routine. On this day last year, Anna learned that her life was about to change - of course none of us thought it would be such a dramatic year full of dialysis and numerous hospitalizations, eventually leading to a kidney transplant.

People tend to laugh when they say our names together "Anna/Nicole" - which is why I find it extra creepy that the death of the over-publicized sensation marked the beginning of life-changing experience for this Anna/Nicole duo. In addition, after Anna Nicole's death, reports were made public that she had been battling Lupus - the same auto-immune disease that shut down Anna's kidneys.

So even a year later, when I see the footage of that creepy Larry Birkhead and his daughter; I still go back to that place a year ago where I sat in my office and cried because it was the beginning of a immensely long and arduous year.

I talked to Anna today, she had her bi-weekly doctor's appointment this morning and found out some bad news. At the ripe old age of 33, Anna has Osteoporosis. This is directly connected to her Lupus and kidney failure. Apparently, it's a pretty bad case too and is in at least three different locations. She goes back in next week for an MRI to determine if it is anywhere else in her body and to set up some type of treatment program. She's stuck in a difficult position, the Osteoporosis, located in her lower back and hips, is highly painful, but she cannot take pain medications (they make her violently sick). She can't even take over the counter Advil for pain, because you cannot take Advil or any other NSAIDS if you only have one kidney. So I'm trying to convince her to move onto the path of Eastern medicine and try some acupuncture for pain relief. Anyone know of any good acupuncturists in the Seattle area?

So hear we are, another February 8th, getting more bad news. Next year I'm considering sleeping through this day.