Posted on 11/22/2019 8:37:46 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
When Nate Boutcher was 22, he found out his kidneys were failing. He wasn’t totally shocked by the doctor’s news, since his dad had suffered from kidney failure throughout Boutcher’s childhood, but the diagnosis still hit him hard. Like most undergrads, he thought he was invincible at the time.
“I knew that I had scarring on my kidneys when I was 18, but I didn’t think it would get any worse. When I went in at age 22, I had some swelling, but I thought it was because I needed stronger medicine—but it turned out, I had severe kidney failure,” Boutcher, who is now 27, told Runner’s World. “My dad didn’t deal with kidney failure and dialysis treatment well. He gave up on himself and just accepted that he would always be sick. I didn’t want to go through that, too.”
Because his kidneys had stopped working, Boutcher needed immediate hemodialysis treatment, which cleans blood and removes fluids and extra waste in the same way working kidneys do. Boutcher was instructed to go in for dialysis three times per week for around four hours each time, for the indefinite future.
“Unless you get a successful kidney transplant, dialysis is basically a life sentence,” Boutcher, a resident of Ontario, said. “I figured I had a choice between sinking and swimming while living with dialysis, so I decided to swim.”
The way to do that? Challenge himself to do things he never thought possible. Five years after he began his kidney dialysis, Boutcher completed the 2019 Detroit Marathon in October, finishing in 5:15:55. While he was all smiles during the race, getting to that finish line took years of hard work, commitment, and remarkable mental toughness.
(Excerpt) Read more at runnersworld.com ...
Great story. Thanks for posting.
Good for him. He’s making the most of each and everyday.
Every so often, I remind myself of how very lucky I am and have been throughout my life. My challenges pale in comparison to what this man has faced since his teens.
My childhood Pastor always told us to live every day as though it were your last day. I’m just beginning to understand what that means.
My brother’s longtime girlfriend is about to donate a kidney to her sister.
It is a very sobering reminder we are indeed mortal.
Ten years after her death I married a widow. Should either of us become an invalid, I hope we would show the same strength as my first wife did. She left me with a good example.
I tried to do that, first for my mother (RIP), then an author in NYC, and then anonymously to somebody down here, but was ultimately disqualified by Johns Hopkins, due to having cancer about 30 years ago and being a C. Dif carrier.
It really would have been nice to both serve God and help some poor soul beat the system.
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