How did I end up here?

Life was going on quite nicely. I had left my job at The Sharks and was working with my dad on the farm. Everything was going swimmingly until March 2016. This is when we got the news that my mom had end stages pancreatic cancer. My world was pulled out from under me. My responsibilities now had escalated. I was no longer just a farmer but now I had the finances to look after too.

Mom fought hard but it was just too advanced and she passed away in August that year. Mom and I were very close so her passing was very tough. Unfortunately the world does not stop when you really need it to. The extra pressure of the farm's finances and the loss of my mom was just too much for my body and a week later I found myself undergoing my first dialysis treatment.

A few months before this my doctor, Dr. S Dawood, mentioned that I needed to look to the future and get an AV fistula inserted. I thought I was a long way from this but the stress of my mom passing brought this day closer than I was ready to accept.

The thing about stress is that it can catch you unprepared. Looking back there are many things I would have liked to change that would have made this journey of kidney failure that much easier, as they say hindsight is 20/20.