This is not a blog post about my rocking swimsuit (or swimming costume as they say here) body, oh no, recent swimsuit trying on events CLEARLY prove otherwise. This blog post is about just how amazing our bodies are at communicating to us when there is a problem. A couple of months ago I looked down and noticed that my fingernails had turned half white/half pink......a reverse french tip if you will. This was different. Immediately I remembered learning that when your fingernails experience a change that it is a sign that there is something else going on within your body. I put the picture out there in Facebook to see if anyone knew what it was or had experienced the same sort of thing before? I received some cheeky comments, but also a tip off that it could be quite serious.
I decided that I would go to the Dr. and have her take a look. The Dr. said that she had never seen anything like it ever before, but would refer me to a dermatologist. I am not a Dr., but I knew that it was NOT a dermatological problem. My mom has a good friend who is an excellent dermatologist, so I emailed him a picture of my nails. The dermatologist confirmed the obvious, it was not a dermatology problem, but what he believed to be called "Lindsey Nails". Knowing my mom, the dermatologist told her not to freak out, but that it is a sign of kidney failure. What! How could I have kidney failure when I am training for a Marathon? I returned to the Dr. and told her what the dermatologist had said, so she ordered some blood tests to be done. Sure enough, my creatinine levels (part of the kidney function) were elevated out of the normal range. The Dr. ordered me to go back and have the blood draw again this time without fasting. Results showed that my creatinine levels were even higher than before, which is atypical and was diagnosed with acute kidney failure. When fasting the creatinine levels are typically more elevated than when you have eaten, but mine were even worse after eating.
This picture was taken 2 months after the initial picture above, and you can see that little has changed.
Ignore the ugly toe nail that I will be losing from my running, and notice that the toe nails have the half and half effect like my fingernails.
So why and how did this happen? When my first child was born I had acute kidney failure from the pre-eclampsia, and had to spend the next couple of months visiting a renal specialist. So why now, 6 years later would I get acute kidney failure again? The Dr. said that because my kidneys had been compromised when I had my preemie they are more likely to have repeat problems. There is a good chance that because of all the running I became dehydrated and it did a number on the kidneys. I have been training hard this Marathon training so that I could beat my previous race time despite the Brighton Marathon's hilly course. The environment here is different and yet I have been training the same as I did in UT where I am from. Perhaps I needed to be drinking more on the shorter runs.... who knows, but something happened leaving me feeling not quite myself. The funny part is that when you know you have a health problem it is easier to imagine that you are feeling unwell and then use that as an excuse for not wanting to do the things that need to be done. I am sure that I feel fine, healthy as a horse actually, but some days I can actually imagine myself into feeling incredibly unwell from the kidney's......the mind is AMAZING isn't it!
When I asked the Dr. "what now?" she told me that it was important for me to eat a low protein diet and periodically test the creatinine levels again. Protein is the hardest thing for the kidneys to process. The Dr. told me that they are having problems with young guys who do body building and are drinking protein drinks as well as middle aged Atkins dieters coming in with kidney failure from overloading the body with proteins. With my training I do not have a high protein diet, but because of the kidney problem, I should not have a high protein diet.....ever. The Dr. stressed the importance of having a balanced diet. Interesting I thought. Balance, what a great word, and so important for us to be balanced in our lives. I have never been great about balance, but being a balanced person and having a good balance in your life is crucial to your health and all around well being.
Our bodies are amazing. I never cease to marvel at how our creator designed these intricate bodies and how he created built in alarms to tell us when things are not quite right. I keep thinking that if I had not had my nails change, I would never have known that I had loss of kidney function, I would have continued to drink too little water, and I would not have known that I needed to "eat meat sparingly." Pretty cool. I did read that the nails don't go back to normal unless a transplant is received.......hmm.....I am not sure about that one, but will definitely set the record straight if they do. The past couple of months I have been reminded yet once again that our bodies truly are amazing.
