In brief I was born with polycystic kidney disease and began suffering symptoms when I was in my late teens. The cysts are in my kidneys and liver which caused both organs to be enlarged. When a cyst itself enlarged and became engorged with blood or infection they became extremely painful. Eventually they would rupture and cause internal bleeding for which the only "cure" was to lie flat on my back for weeks at a time. I once figured out that if I added my "down time" all together out of 16 years in my twenties and thirties I spent an entire three of those years flat on my back in bed and/or on the sofa trying to get the bleeding to stop. It was disabling and caused me to limit and exclude many activities I wanted to do and it also meant that I couldn't wear many types of clothing that I wanted to wear because I could have nothing touch my waist – ever. It would cause the cysts to act up and bleed if I did. In spite of all of this my husband and I did adopt ( because we didn't … [Read more...]