Expedition Kidney

Hi, again my name is Brian Bell. I live in a village in Illinois. Yes I said Village, this means we have our pitchforks and torches at the ready 🤪. Especially for you ghouls and goblins! Everytime I hear the word village, I think of horror movies. I was diagnosed with kidney disease back in 2017 when I went to the doctor to have my blood tested because I was having panic attacks on a regular basis. When they found out that my kidneys were not functioning properly the first thing they said is try drinking more water and come back and have the test repeated in about 3 weeks. So I did this and when I did, the tests also came back showing I had kidney problems. At that point they decided that I did have kidney disease. It took me a little while to come to grips with this considering it was a life-threatening disease. I have had issues in the past with other parts of my body and surgically they've been fixed without any problems but this is the first time I had something that was actually capable of killing me. Granted, the likelihood is very small that I will die from this since I am young and have good health overall and I only have kidney disease and not heart disease or diabetes.

Heart disease and diabetes are the two main causes for most people to have kidney disease but in my case it seems that the only reason I have it is because of my lack of drinking enough water when I needed it.

This is the only thing the doctors can come up with as far as a reason for me to have kidney disease. They find no other reason including genetically for me to have this disease. That's right, I said genetically. Mayo Clinic did a test of my exome and compared it to my parents’ exome and found that I only had one gene of unknown consequence that was different from what my parents have.

This brings me to a great suggestion for everyone: You should definitely have a full blood workup done once a year even if you're feeling good. This gives the doctors a roadmap and allows them to see if there's anything that might be happening so they can catch it early.

As for the rest of me, I enjoy walking. I try to walk 3 and a half to 4 miles per day and I bike on an exercise bike about 15 minutes per day. I really want to get back out on the bike trails and on the hiking trails out in the local parks around the area. As for my hobbies, I do enjoy designing things like furniture and cars on the computer and I enjoy designing just about anything for that matter. I have built a couple of shelves and a couple of desks for myself, one for my computer and one for me as a general purpose desk.

I enjoy watching movies and racing, especially racing. I watch Formula 1, IndyCar, World Endurance Championship, Formula E, and IMSA sportscar racing. I don't typically watch Nascar unless it's on a road course. I love looking at high performance sports cars and would love to own one someday and going to car shows. I did get a chance to work with a guy who is not only into high-performance sports cars but also designed his own and started his own company. I worked for him for a while until he passed away.

My biggest dream though has always been to work in the VFX industry doing some kind of compositing or 3D animation. I have several examples of work I have already done but the one thing I'm lacking is just the simple experience of working in a production house. I'm currently working on that part by making connections.

I don't go to church like I used to on a regular basis but I do have devotions every day and I try to go online to a church once a week. I do believe in God, and I believe that Jesus is the son of God and that he saved my soul. I know that everything that happens to me is for a very good reason, this even includes the kidney disease that I have. I don't always know how He's going to use it but I know he'll use it for some kind of good for not only me but also for the people around me.

I think that is about it for the moment. Thank you for taking the opportunity to read this and for looking at my website.

Brian