Kidney Matters - Issue 12 Spring 2021
Kidney Matters is our free quarterly magazine for everyone affected by kidney disease. This issue includes a tribute to Kidney Care UK Chair of Trustees Professor Donal O'Donoghue who passed away due to covid-19 at the start of the year. There's also a feature on sex and relationships, how your views helped shape covid-19 national policy, medical articles on anaemia and simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplantation, and a feature interview with a transplant recipient on some of the social stigmas often faced by people with chronic health conditions within the Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) community. As well as this, we'll be looking back at two years of the Kidney Kitchen as we cook up a tasty tandoori with guest chef and RNG dietitian, Gabby Ramlan.
Kidney Matters is our free quarterly magazine for everyone affected by kidney disease.
This issue includes a tribute to Kidney Care UK Chair of Trustees Professor Donal O'Donoghue who passed away due to covid-19 at the start of the year. There's also a feature on sex and relationships, how your views helped shape covid-19 national policy, medical articles on anaemia and simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplantation, and a feature interview with a transplant recipient on some of the social stigmas often faced by people with chronic health conditions within the Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) community.
As well as this, we'll be looking back at two years of the Kidney Kitchen as we cook up a tasty tandoori with guest chef and RNG dietitian, Gabby Ramlan.
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With my son, Daniel
25
Recognising when the sticky tape is
not holding it together anymore
Bombshell number 3. The Nikki Fretwell
Experience was Out of Order. I was
diagnosed with stress, anxiety and
depression. Over the years I’d built this wall
around me. I was untouchable, invincible.
But I didn’t recognise myself anymore. Nor
did my home therapy nurse, who persuaded
me to see the renal psychologist. What a
godsend. Like a jigsaw, she emptied me, then
gradually put me back together. I returned to
work for a year, but inside, I knew it was over.
I applied for retirement on ill health, rested
and started painting.
There’s still so much of life to enjoy
Meanwhile, I’d been invited on to local radio
to talk about life on dialysis. I was asked back
as a weekly guest; just the boost I needed.
I completed the training and in November
2019 I had my own show as a presenter.
As one door closes....
2020. After 22 years in education, I was
granted ill health retirement. I’ve set myself
a challenge: do something different every
month. Four were spent shielding but I’m
teaching myself piano, and recently, I drove a
steamroller!
Not on my list: learning a new dialysis
machine. My 20-year-old fistula is calcified.
Fistuloplasty number four, and a change to
single needle required. With Braun machines
unavailable at hospital, nurses trained me
on a Fresenius and I was back home within
the month. In that time, my dialysis room
was redecorated and I bought a new bed and
storage. It’s the nicest room in the house
now!
Even on the darkest of nights, the moon is
shining somewhere. The worst times can
result in something positive. I know I’m not
invincible. I turn 50 next year: my 30th dialysis
anniversary. No transplant. I’m blessed with
many wonderful friends. My family has kept
me sane. My son is my driving force. Rob,
for his sins, has stuck by me. My funeral is
planned, just in case. There’s still so much life
to enjoy and I want to be in the record books
as the longest surviving, non-transplanted
dialysis patient. For now, I shall do the radio,
be with those that matter and live my life.
The Nikki Fretwell Experience will continue.
Life is amazing.
“Even on the darkest of nights,
the moon is shining somewhere.
The worst times can result in
something positive.”
Photography by Jason Tem at www.jasontemphotography.com
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