Fittingly the second Tuesday in March is World Kidney Day. I say fittingly for two reasons. First is my own health experiences recently relating to my diagnosis of End Stage Renal Failure. My poor kidneys were ravaged during my bout with Sepsis in 2019 and have been declining ever since. Earlier this year I began Peritoneal Dialysis procedures. It is a home treatment of some complexity and you can read more about it in my blog by searching for dialysis for recent posts. This is essentially keeping me alive as I begin the long and tortuous quest for a Kidney Transplant. I am just delving into this journey and will explain more in future posts.

The second reason it is fitting is this article in yesterday’s New York Times addressing the developing science of using specially bred pigs to serve as sources of organ transplant, including kidneys.

I won’t try to summarize the article and if you are interested, it makes a fascinating read. It is not an immediate fix and many things need to be worked out, including scale, ethical concerns, and medical protection. But it is a fascinating development in this field that I will be watching with great interest. Hopefully more to come in the future!