When kidney transplant patients at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Transplant Institute celebrate their first year after transplant, they ring a bell. The bright tone of the “Bell of New Beginnings” resonates throughout the clinic, marking the first anniversary of a journey toward a new chance at life.
UAB Medicine patient Ronita Jackson, whose transplant journey was long and complex, appreciates the significance of the phrase “new beginning.” Jackson, now 42, was diagnosed with both chronic kidney disease and diabetes by age 19. CKD is a medical condition that leads to a gradual loss of kidney function over time. As the disease gets worse, waste material can reach high levels in the blood and cause high blood pressure, a low red blood cell count (anemia), weak bones, poor nutritional health and nerve damage. CKD also increases the risk of heart disease.
Jackson says she experienced almost every symptom and complication of diabetes and CKD, and she spent two decades of her life constantly managing her condition…