Learning from Bitterness

In our mind, maybe we always believe that sick isn’t pleasant, not comfortable, interfere our daily activities and our plans. Yeah, moreover if it is a chronical disease. All time in our life are wasted for the same sick. In fact, this disease will have never been made well. Precisely, it will be more serious and also can carry away our happiness.

This problem had had happened by my family, especially by my beloved father. In June 13^th this year, he will have passed away for 13^th year. My father passed away because he had several chronical diseases in the same time or in simple word, he had a “complicated disease”. But the last diagnose which we were acquired from his doctor, my father got a renal failure disease. Before it, he also were diagnosed had hypertension problem and congestive heart failure. The hypertension of my father included very dangerous hypertension category or emergency hypertension. If It was not taken in hand,  It could damage organs in his body. My father ever had to hospitalized with the systole blood pressure raised up to 230mmHg. This grade was very critical conditional and had to decreased as soon as possible. He in that time was very sicked, and vomited badly. 

Hypertension problem which had suffered by my father could dominantly were caused of genetic factor. The parents of my father and all of his blood brothers and sisters were also suffered hypertension problem. Further, it were added with bad life styles of my father. He was a smoker, liked coffe, and less in sport. So those factor accumulated and then caused hypertension. As a general community, my family only tried to solved the disease by simple ways. The example, my father was prohibited to consume meat from goat and reduced salt consumption. We never went and consulted it with the doctor, whereas after I have studied about medicine, the hypertension like this, had to controlled with antihypertension medicine, there were no exceptional reasons.

Now, I am studying in medical faculty, and I have known that hypertension is very closely related with renal failure. My lecturer, who he is an internist, said that “ Hypertension and renal failure like a circle of phantom (in Indonesian called “Lingkaran Setan). Hypertension can induce renal failure, and then conversely, renal failure also bringing on hypertension. So, which is the cause factor and which is the result are still unknown.” Hypertension is the condition when the peripheral resistance of blood vessels is high so that can reduce the blood supply to the organs in the body. The result, body organ, like kidney can damage, it condition called ‘renal failure’. Renal failure is the condition when renal/kidney function is decline so that kidney can’t eliminate metabolism waste pass through urine. The metabolism waste can poison our body. Then it causing metabolic asidosis, uremia, and etc. The damaged kidney then induce the releasing of hormons which can cause hypertension more badly like angiotensin and renin. So this circle of phantom will always run and never end.

For the renal failure patients, indeed there is no other choices to treat the disease without hemodialysis routinely or kidney donor. Hemodialysis play role as substituter of kidney to clean and eliminate metabolism waste. My father agreed to undergo hemodialysis procedure during 6 hours. But unfortunately, after that, my father was afraid and didn’t want again to undergo this procedure. Finally, my family respected his decision, we tried to obey what the doctor said, like my father must to avoid consumed to much protein and had to take the medicine routinely. Only in a time gap about a  month after the last hemodialysis procedure, my father had a relapse condition. He vomited badly again and he was coma. Maybe that was which called Asidosis metabolic, when metabolic waste accumulated continuely. Finally, my father passed away.

I am sad, but from this incident I can take a lot of knowledge. Later, in someday, I don’t know when it will happen or no, I want to be an internist who especially learning about kidney, yeah…be a nephrolog. I wanna help other people who like my father did. I want to save their life and also bring their happiness again. Amin. ;)