A whole new world!

It all started with a UTI, which turned into a kidney infection, which wasn't getting better.. So the doctor ordered a CT Scan, and it revealed a kidney stone, as well as the fact that I have PKD.
PKD stands for Polycystic Kidney Disease. He couldn't tell me much about it because he's just a general practitioner, but told me I need to go see a nephrologist asap.

So after the phone call, we looked up the info on PKD and this is what we found:

"PKD is characterized by the presence of multiple cysts(hence, "polycystic") in both kidneys. The cysts are numerous and fluid-filled cysts resulting in massive enlargement of the kidneys. The disease can also damage the liver, pancreas, and rarely, the heart and brain. The two major forms of polycystic kidney disease are distinguished by their patterns of inheritance."

Mine is Autosomal Dominant, meaning it's genetic, so one of my parents had/have it, and 50% of my brothers and sisters have a chance of having it as well.

"When PKD causes kidneys to fail—which usually happens after many years—the patient requires dialysis or kidney transplantation. About one-half of people with the most common type of PKD progress to kidney failure, also called end-stage renal disease (ESRD). PKD can also cause cysts in the liver and problems in other organs, such as blood vessels in the brain and heart. There is currently no cure or treatment for PKD."

Probably needless to say, we were a little worried and upset.
But, after some research we were able to find this website pkdiet.com (and one other article), which explains in great detail about how you can control your diet and in turn greatly control the health of your kidneys, and developement of new cysts.

Basically what it comes down to is, there's a LOT of foods I can't eat, and I'll be making a pretty drastic change in diet, but hopefully it will help and I won't have problems!
We have to meet with the nephrologist now and find out all the details, as well as how far the disease has already progressed, which will give us a lot more info on how to take care of it!