Darren Daniel was experiencing symptoms that many of us put down to the affect that stress has on our lives. He had headaches, stomach pain and often felt tired.
He put it down to working hard, and avoided getting advice from his GP. However he was also experiencing swollen ankles and cramps, and on the morning of Sunday March 5, 2017, he woke up feeling "unusual".
His vision was blurry and he had slurred speech. He thought he was having a stroke and was rushed to hospital where medics thought the same thing.
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An ECG scan and a CT scan found that Darren had not had a stroke, and fortunately for him a junior doctor suspected something else and insisted his urine was tested which confirmed his diagnosis as kidney disease.
Now, 42-year-old Darren is hoping to educate others around kidney disease, and wants people to look out for the warning signs while also taking better care of their health.
Darren, from Ammanford, said: "I was placed under the care of a nephrologist in Morriston Hospital in Swansea who confirmed the diagnosis after a biopsy and further testing. I had something called Nephrotic Syndrome which is usually present in all end stage patients, and can lead to serious issues with kidney disease. I had stage 4 CKD (chronic kidney disease) and Nephrotic Syndrome, and looked likely I would go into kidney failure."
Nephrotic Syndrome is a group of symptoms that indicate your kidneys aren't working properly. The main function of your kidneys is to clean blood by filtering out excess water, salt and waste products from food. However if your kidneys are damaged, protein can leak into the urine. As a result there is not enough protein in the blood to soak up the water and water can move to other parts of the body causing swelling and putting a person at risk of infection.
Darren continued: "I was completely dumbfounded at first. It's not something you tend to hear a lot about unless you're going through it or unless you're close to someone who's going through it. I never used any other terms or things for apart from transplant and dialysis.
"So I assumed straight away that I was going to need the transplant. I assumed straight away that I was going to go through dialysis and be hooked to a machine and not have much of a life and basically be severely restricted on everything for the rest of my life, which everyone seems to think that it's a life sentence when they hear the world kidney disease."
But Darren took himself away and did as much research as possible. He read all about the disease and educated himself on what he could do to make himself better.
"After seven years, I have beaten Nephrotic Syndrome and my kidneys are in much safer place. I followed advice from my doctor and from various charities websites and I feel a whole lot better. I'm sat at stage 3 kidney disease now with a brighter future. "
People with chronic kidney disease can live long lives with the condition, but in some cases, their kidneys may stop working all together.
Watch Darren's TikTok videos where he raises awareness of the symptoms:
Darren said the diagnosis was a wake-up call to look after his health. He said: "I was on a fast track to kidney failure after they discovered that, until they calmed down, then basically what caused it all was high blood pressure. So I was put on blood pressure medication, I changed my diet, I gave up cigarettes. It just basically changed my life around.
"And hard work and dedication is what my doctor sees it as. I see it as a bit of luck as well, with the way it's turned out, I've beaten the protein. Now I have none whatsoever in my urine. There's no protein in my urine at all. After six years, it's been a long journey, but it's helped with everything I've done. I think it's a bit of luck involved as well, just catching it at the right time."
Darren's diet consists of low sodium and low salt, more fruit and vegetables. He also exercises a lot more and has given up smoking. He has also given up fizzy sugary drinks which he said don't help toward controlling blood pressure.
He joked: "I give up chocolate for around a year and a half as well, just to make sure that I could keep on top of the reducing my sugar intake. And I love chocolate, I really do. That was very difficult to do as well."
Darren runs a TikTok account which he uses to educate people about kidney disease, highlighting the symptoms that come with it. He is also heavily involved in charities aiming to raise awareness of the condition.
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