annethology
  • Home
    • About Annethology
    • About me >
      • A little more about me
    • About my books
    • Author talks
    • Contact me
    • Forthcoming events
    • World Mental Health Day
    • Privacy
    • Sign up for my newsletter
  • Sugar and Snails
    • Acknowledgements
    • Blog tour, Q&A's and feature articles >
      • Birthday blog tour
      • S&S on tour 2022
    • Early endorsements
    • Events >
      • Launch photos
      • Launch party videos
    • in pictures
    • Media
    • If you've read the book
    • Polari
    • Reading group questions
    • Reviews
    • In the media
  • Underneath
    • Endorsements and reviews
    • Launch party and events
    • Pictures
    • Questions for book groups
    • The stories underneath the novel
  • Matilda Windsor series
    • Matilda Windsor >
      • What readers say
      • For book groups
      • Interviews, articles and features
      • Matty on the move
      • Who were you in 1990?
      • Asylum lit
      • Matilda Windsor media
    • Stolen Summers >
      • Stolen Summers reviews
  • Short stories
    • Somebody’s Daughter
    • Becoming Someone (anthology) >
      • Becoming Someone (video readings)
      • Becoming Someone reviews
      • Becoming Someone online book chat
    • Print and downloads
    • Read it online
    • Quick reads
  • Free ebook
  • Annecdotal
    • Annecdotal blog
    • Annecdotal Press
    • Articles >
      • Print journalism
      • Where psychology meets fiction
    • Fictional therapists
    • Reading and reviews >
      • Reviews A to H
      • Reviews I to M
      • Reviews N to Z
      • Nonfiction
      • Themed quotes
      • Reading around the world
  • Shop
    • Inspired Quill (my publisher)
    • Bookshop.org (affiliate link)
    • Amazon UK
    • Amazon US
    • books2read

About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

On World Kidney Day, I have some advice for my year-ago self

8/3/2023

8 Comments

 
Picture
This time last year, I knew next to nothing about kidney disease. I knew next to nothing about the vital role of healthy kidneys in keeping us well. I’m sure you’ll appreciate that a shock diagnosis on a hospital ward wasn’t the easiest way to address those gaps in my knowledge. The learning curve seems steeper when you’re already befuddled and out of breath.
Although one in ten people have kidney disease, I wasn’t alone in my ignorance. Although it’s easy to detect with a simple blood test, I wasn’t alone in my diagnosis being delayed.
 
Who knows whether if, this time last year, I’d been more aware, things would have been easier? But knowledge is power, so I have some advice for my former self. While you wouldn’t be so naïve as to mistake this blog for medical opinion, perhaps it will nudge you to check out some websites and be better informed.
 
  • When you wake up feeling vaguely unwell with your cheeks as chubby as a chipmunk’s, don’t wait a week to contact your GP.
  • When your feet, legs and ankles start swelling, note that drinking lots of water could make things worse.
  • When you’re breathless, shaky and can hardly walk because your legs are like tree trunks, yet your GP still insists a blood test isn’t urgent, pack a book, a cushion and earplugs, and spend the evening in A&E.
  • When you’re finally admitted to hospital, and awaiting a bed on the renal ward, don’t ask for coffee. Don’t ask for tomato soup. (Still, I think the staff should have told me to avoid these and other high potassium foods.)
 
I was lucky my kidneys didn’t get so bad that I needed dialysis, but I’m still devastated. Nine months on from diagnosis, I’m still learning, while struggling to adjust to having a long-term condition and relying on immunosuppressants to prevent a relapse.
 
Huge thanks to the doctors, nurses, dietitians, phlebotomists, radiographers, lab technicians, pharmacists and support staff who have steered me through the bumpy journey from assessment to treatment and now to maintenance and for my lovely husband who is constantly by my side.
 
Follow the links for more information:
 
8 Golden Rules - World Kidney Day
 
Kidney Care UK, the UK's leading kidney patient support charity
 
The National Kidney Foundation
 
and/or test your knowledge with a quiz:
 
Kidney Knowledge Quiz - World Kidney Day
 
Kidney Disease Risk Factors Quiz
 
Charli Mills tells a fascinating story in the post that accompanies this week’s 99-word story challenge. She describes how a song she chances to hear on the radio lead her to hop from memory to memory to mourning a baby who disappeared in the womb.
I doubted I could connect that to a post about kidneys, but the mind works in mysterious ways. The prompt is Gloria, and it just so happens that I’ve got a Gloria in my forthcoming novel, Lyrics for the Loved Ones, which opens for preorders soon. But I’ve just had an idea for a follow-up, featuring my character Janice from Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, which bridges kidneys and twins. So, of course, I had to write two stories. See what you think.
Picture
The perfect match?

Janice checks the expiry dates on her toiletries. She swaps last year’s bestseller for a new release. Stows the bag back in the wardrobe. How long will it sit there gathering dust?

The hope when she first packed it. The confidence she’d get the call. The odds reducing with every birthday. Friends have offered, been tested, but never matched.


Her twin would be perfect. But how do you ask a man you’ve never met? Showered by the love of her adoptive parents, she’d never needed her birth family. Until now, when only a kidney transplant could save her life.


Who put those voices in her head?


Mother’s Day in lockdown was certainly different. But surprisingly entertaining, with her boys and their air guitars serenading her via Zoom.

They’d loosely followed Van Morrison’s music, raucous and raw. Altered the words to make it more about her. Two months on, Gloria’s discovered another song about her namesake: Laura Branigan’s disco version is more bouncy. And disturbing. An earworm she can’t shake off.

​There’s worse. Has this song released an evil genie from the bottle? How else to explain the phantom plaguing the house? Her mother’s voice taunting her from inside the teapot. Calling her trollop, doxy, whore.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
8 Comments
Charli Mills
10/3/2023 10:19:25 pm

Bravo for being your best patient advocate, Anne and then distilling what you learned to explain kidney symptoms most of us would not understand at first, either. I agree with you that knowledge is power. It can't change a condition but it can lead us to a better understanding of how to maintain quality of life. You use your experience well to push into the head space of your characters. Janice now has to face the urgency of finding her twin separated at adoption. One of my writing profs would say, "Give your character a prop." I think giving them a condition expands who they are. Gloria in your second story has sad echoes of living with the psychological earworm of a neglectful parent through voices in her head. Excellent stories, both!

Reply
Anne Goodwin
11/3/2023 07:45:25 am

Yes, a prop, or like our 99-words, a constraint that offers freedom to create. The illness itself isn't the point of it but – hopefully – the emotion that anyone can relate to. I'm quite excited about this story at the moment, but have been in this situation so many times before with a new project I can't be sure it will lead somewhere.

Reply
Nicole Horlings
16/3/2023 02:29:52 am

Great stories, Anne. I really enjoyed your take on Gloria in the second one, and the first was a meaningful take on the twin theme from Charli's post.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
17/3/2023 06:47:11 am

Thanks so much, Nicole.

Reply
Norah Colvin
21/3/2023 09:57:29 am

Thank you for your advice about kidney disease, Anne. I'm sorry you had to learn the hard way. I hope you are able to maintain reasonable health and that your body doesn't start attacking itself again. I'm pleased you didn't (and hope you don't) get to the stage of having dialysis. Some of my family members had/have kidney disease related to diabetes. Fortunately, none have needed dialysis. It's pretty gruelling.
I feel for Janice and her situation. I didn't pick up on anything like that in the book, though I knew she was adopted and remember her wanting to find her biological family, much to her adopted sister's disgust, initially. A family I was friends with many years ago when we lived in WA (now we're email pals) have a daughter who needed a kidney transplant. I think she was about 20 at the time and her father probably in his forties (I can't remember the exact details but she is my son's age and the father is a bit older than me). The father donated one of his kidneys to her. That was almost 30 years ago. She is still in delicate health but is able to work and lives a happy life. The father is still going strong and (I think) still runs half-marathons. What a courageous pair.
I hope Janice finds her twin and that he is willing and able to help, and that they both live long and healthy lives.
Can't wait for your new book. :)

Reply
Anne Goodwin
22/3/2023 11:50:08 am

Thanks, Norah, and sorry about your relatives – I guess you would have known more than me about kidney disease through them. So many complications with diabetes and, from what I've read, mix the kidney diet twice as challenging.
It's marvellous how transplant can give someone back their life and the donor can do so well with only one kidney.
I'm glad you can remember Janice but neither she, nor you nor I would have known about her twin when she appeared in Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home set in 1989. But she's a lot older now! I still have to work out some details about her twin – who might have to be an ordinary rather – but it's been interesting speculating on what happened to her in the intervening years.

Reply
D. Avery link
22/3/2023 03:57:17 pm

I don't ever doubt that you can connect any of Charli's challenges to a flash (or two) and better still, to your characters. I too remember Janice and wish her well in this situation.
So many of us would rather tough things out than ask timely questions of our doctor. I'm glad you got sorted before you got worse. My mother was a while getting her kidneys sorted, come to find out she has some very rare condition that occurs most commonly in older black males. My mother is older, but that's it for that demographic, so she's a rare bird indeed. Doing okay though and now we know.

Reply
Anne
24/3/2023 09:52:52 am

In my case, the reluctance was with my GP who didn’t see the urgency of getting me a much-needed blood test. Things would have been much worse if I hadn’t had my husband to push on my behalf – it’s really hard arguing with a doctor when all you want to do is crawl back to bed.
Sorry about your mother but glad she’s doing okay now she has a diagnosis. What I’ve learned is that kidney disease is easy to detect from a blood test but the exact type – and hence the treatment – is more complicated to pin down. Mine was tricky because the blood results pointed one way and the biopsy somewhere else and the treatment for one would have exacerbated the other. Luckily they got there in the end.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Free ebook: click the image to claim yours.
    Picture
    OUT NOW: The poignant prequel to Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home
    Picture
    Find a review
    Picture
    Fictional therapists
    Picture
    Picture
    About Anne Goodwin
    Picture
    My published books
    entertaining fiction about identity, mental health and social justice
    Picture
    My latest novel, published May 2021
    Picture
    My debut novel shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize
    Picture
    Picture
    My second novel published May 2017.
    Picture
    Short stories on the theme of identity published 2018
    Anne Goodwin's books on Goodreads
    Sugar and Snails Sugar and Snails
    reviews: 32
    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

    Underneath Underneath
    reviews: 24
    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

    Becoming Someone Becoming Someone
    reviews: 8
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.56)

    GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4 GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4
    reviews: 4
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.44)

    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

    2022 Reading Challenge

    2022 Reading Challenge
    Anne has read 2 books toward their goal of 100 books.
    hide
    2 of 100 (2%)
    view books
    Picture
    Annecdotal is where real life brushes up against the fictional.  
    Picture
    Annecdotist is the blogging persona of Anne Goodwin: 
    reader, writer,

    slug-slayer, tramper of moors, 
    recovering psychologist, 
    struggling soprano, 
    author of three fiction books.

    LATEST POSTS HERE
    I don't post to a schedule, but average  around ten reviews a month (see here for an alphabetical list), 
    some linked to a weekly flash fiction, plus posts on my WIPs and published books.  

    Your comments are welcome any time any where.

    Get new posts direct to your inbox ...

    Enter your email address:

    or click here …

    RSS Feed


    Picture

    Tweets by @Annecdotist
    Picture
    New short story, “My Dirty Weekend”
    Picture
    Let’s keep in touch – subscribe to my newsletter
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Popular posts

    • Compassion: something we all need
    • Do spoilers spoil?
    • How to create a convincing fictional therapist
    • Instructions for a novel
    • Looking at difference, embracing diversity
    • Never let me go: the dilemma of lending books
    • On loving, hating and writers’ block
      On Pop, Pirates and Plagiarism
    • READIN' for HER reviews
    • Relishing the cuts
    • The fast first draft
    • The tragedy of obedience
    • Writers and therapy: a love-hate relationship?

    Categories/Tags

    All
    Animals
    Annecdotist Hosts
    Annecdotist On Tour
    Articles
    Attachment Theory
    Author Interviews
    Becoming Someone
    Being A Writer
    Blogging
    Bodies
    Body
    Bookbirthday
    Books For Writers
    Bookshops
    CB Book Group
    Character
    Childhood
    Christmas
    Classics
    Climate Crisis
    Coming Of Age
    Counsellors Cafe
    Creative Writing Industry
    Creativity
    Cumbria
    Debut Novels
    Disability
    Editing
    Emotion
    Ethics
    Ethis
    Family
    Feedback And Critiques
    Fictional Psychologists & Therapists
    Food
    Friendship
    Futuristic
    Gender
    Genre
    Getting Published
    Giveaways
    Good Enough
    Grammar
    Gratitude
    Group/organisational Dynamics
    Hero’s Journey
    History
    Humour
    Identity
    Illness
    Independent Presses
    Institutions
    International Commemorative Day
    Jane Eyre
    Kidney Disease
    Language
    LGBTQ
    Libraries
    Live Events
    Lyrics For The Loved Ones
    Marketing
    Matilda Windsor
    Memoir
    Memory
    Mental Health
    Microfiction
    Motivation
    Music
    MW Prequel
    Names
    Narrative Voice
    Nature / Gardening
    Networking
    Newcastle
    Nonfiction
    Nottingham
    Novels
    Pandemic
    Peak District
    Perfect Match
    Poetry
    Point Of View
    Politics
    Politics Current Affairs
    Presentation
    Privacy
    Prizes
    Psychoanalytic Theory
    Psychology
    Psycholoists Write
    Psychotherapy
    Race
    Racism
    Rants
    Reading
    Real Vs Imaginary
    Religion
    Repetitive Strain Injury
    Research
    Reviewing
    Romance
    Satire
    Second Novels
    Settings
    Sex
    Shakespeare
    Short Stories General
    Short Stories My Published
    Short Stories Others'
    Siblings
    Snowflake
    Somebody's Daughter
    Stolen Summers
    Storytelling
    Structure
    Sugar And Snails
    Technology
    The
    The Guestlist
    Therapy
    TikTok
    TNTB
    Toiletday
    Tourism
    Toxic Positivity
    Transfiction
    Translation
    Trauma
    Unconscious
    Unconscious, The
    Underneath
    Voice Recognition Software
    War
    WaSBihC
    Weather
    Work
    Writing Process
    Writing Technique

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Picture
    BLOGGING COMMUNITIES
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from havens.michael34, romana klee, mrsdkrebs, Kyle Taylor, Dream It. Do It., adam & lucy, dluders, Joybot, Hammer51012, jorgempf, Sherif Salama, eyspahn, raniel diaz, E. E. Piphanies, scaredofbabies, Nomadic Lass, paulternate, Tony Fischer Photography, archer10 (Dennis), slightly everything, impbox, jonwick04, country_boy_shane, dok1, Out.of.Focus, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Elvert Barnes, guillenperez, Richard Perry, jamesnaruke, Juan Carlos Arniz Sanz, El Tuerto, kona99, maveric2003, !anaughty!, Patrick Denker, David Davies, hamilcar_south, idleformat, Dave Goodman, Sharon Mollerus, photosteve101, La Citta Vita, A Girl With Tea, striatic, carlosfpardo, Damork, Elvert Barnes, UNE Photos, jurvetson, quinn.anya, BChristensen93, Joelk75, ashesmonroe, albertogp123, >littleyiye<, mudgalbharat, Swami Stream, Dicemanic, lovelihood, anyjazz65, Tjeerd, albastrica mititica, jimmiehomeschoolmom