Raising Kidney Health Awareness
Kidney Awareness Month is March – but for Tamika Roberts, Bahamas Kidney Association (BKA) president — raising awareness about the function of kidneys and preventative measures, and improving the lives of people affected by kidney disease is more than a one-month, once a year activity. For Roberts informing and educating people about kidney disease is year-round. “When we formed the Bahamas Kidney Association (BKA), it was never meant to be an awareness month thing,” said Roberts. “We never wanted to be a one month, once-a-year organization because of the need.” Roberts, along with volunteers, on Saturday worked the Harbour Bay Shopping Plaza, offering free health checks — hypertension, glucose and cholesterol – to people. It’s something the organization does monthly. The BKA president said it’s important and that they see the importance of doing the free health checks consistently every month, to raise awareness. “Many people don’t know that hypertension and diabetes, are key indicators in kidney disease. And we test for those and cholesterol, and if a person gets an elevated result, we urge the person to go to the doctor and get checked out,” she said. “Most times people are busy and even miss annuals. And we have come across people elevated and that prompts them to go.” Roberts’ advocacy is personal. Six years ago, she donated one of her kidneys to her younger brother Antonio Roberts, who was in kidney failure. She did so, knowing that she wanted to help give her brother a normal life. With both his kidneys in failure, and knowing that he needed a kidney transplant, or face the remainder of his life on dialysis, she said she could not live with her brother on dialysis, knowing that she could help. “I saw what he went through three days a week, four hours on the machine each time. I saw what he was like when he came off the dialysis machine.” At the time of her kidney donation in June 2018, she said her brother had two young children to provide for, and her thoughts went to him not being alive for his children. “I said if I could help him in any way for him to be here, I would do it for my niece and nephew. I felt bad for him, especially with him being younger than me. Then, there’s the fact that I see what dialysis does to patients. Dialysis totally changes you. It deforms people and strips them off their dignity,” she said. Roberts gave her brother one of her kidneys because she wanted to give him his dignity back. The BKA president said her continued advocacy is important because kidney disease continues to be on the rise and it is her intention to ensure that it remains in the forefront. Roberts says it’s a topic that is too big to ignore. “I often get calls from people who have have been diagnosed and people being diagnosed continues to increase.” Prior to speaking with The Nassau Guardian, Roberts said she received a call from someone who wanted to speak with her about their teenaged niece receiving a diabetes diagnosis. She said when she receives calls like that it reminds her of the importance of continuing to raise awareness. And of following doctor’s orders if they’ve been diagnosed. BKA was established with two main purposes in mind – to improve the lives of people affected by kidney disease, and to reduce the instances of kidney failure in The Bahamas through public education efforts. It’s with this in mind that the association’s mission of raising awareness, providing support, and advocating for improved kidney health in people continues year-round. “A lot of people don’t know they have kidney disease until it’s too late,” said Roberts. Chronic kidney disease (CKD), also called chronic kidney failure, involves a gradual loss of kidney function. Chronic kidney disease occurs when a disease or condition impairs kidney function, causing kidney damage to worsen over several months or years. A person’s kidneys filter wastes and excess fluids from their blood, which are then removed in urine. Advanced CKD can cause dangerous levels of fluid, electrolytes and wastes to build up in the body. In the early stages of CKD, a person might have few signs or symptoms, and not even realize they have kidney disease until the condition is advanced. Diseases and conditions that cause CKD include type 1 or type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, glomerulonephritis (an inflammation of the kidney’s filtering units), interstitial nephritis (an inflammation of the kidney’s tubules and surrounding structures), polycystic kidney disease or other inherited kidney diseases, prolonged obstruction of the urinary tract from conditions such as enlarged prostate, kidney stones and some cancers, vesicoureteral reflux (a condition that causes urine to back up into the kidneys), and recurrent kidney infection. Risk factors Factors that can increase a person’s risk of CKD includes diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, smoking, obesity, being Black, Native American or Asian American, family history of kidney disease, abnormal kidney structure, older age, frequent use of medications that can damage the kidneys. Roberts said she frequently hears people say things like they don’t know about the relationship of high blood pressure and diabetes with kidney disease. While Roberts said it is her hope that people never receive a KD diagnosis, once they have, she said BKA is there to assist and to also raise awareness in regards to management of their disease. “We find it important to provide support to kidney patients, many of whom don’t have insurance. Dialysis is not cheap and prevention is better than a cure. Management of the disease will keep them off the [dialysis] machine. For those diagnosed with KD, we find it important to provide support, because kidney disease is a long-term disease.” The president says management of the disease is taxing financially as far as medication, as well as emotionally. BKA hosts a monthly meeting that is complimentary to anyone diagnosed with KD where they can find information from medical professionals
