I Landed in the ICU With Kidney Failure. My Goal: A Punk Concert

Hi friends, we love sharing stories that give you a little hope, and this one from Franziska is exactly that kind. Last spring she ended up in the ICU with kidney failure, and afterward she had just one goal: to be well enough by fall to see Die Toten Hosen, a hugely popular German punk band, live in concert. Here's her story, and whether she made it.

It all started on a morning at the end of April. I hadn't been feeling well, on and off, for a few weeks. I blamed work and stress. We've been self-employed for a good two years now, running a taxi company we took over from my parents.

Suddenly everything was different

That morning, I finally wanted to make an appointment with my primary care doctor. I never made it. Honestly, I barely remember the first few days. All I recall is my husband telling me I had to wake the boys up because it was 6 a.m. I stared at the clock and couldn't process that information at all. I had no idea what to do.

From that point on, I have almost no memory. I only know this much: if he hadn't taken me to the hospital, I probably wouldn't be here today. At the hospital, they found record-breaking blood pressure readings. They suspected a stroke. Meningitis was also on the table, since I was complaining of unbelievable pain.

Kidney failure! Cause unknown

I was transferred to another hospital that had a specialized stroke department, a stroke unit. After they ran me through the CT and MRI and did a spinal tap, both diagnoses were ruled out. Unfortunately, the doctors found that my kidneys were failing. The cause? Unknown!

So I was transferred again. This time I went by helicopter, straight to the ICU in Dresden. There I lay, getting a ton of medication through a central venous line, with dialysis running through a Sheldon catheter. Nobody knew whether my kidneys would start working again.

I had visitors every day: my husband (he really was there every single day!), my parents, my siblings, and our boys. I only became aware of that about three days later, though. Then I slowly started to feel better, one small step at a time. Talking wore me out at first, but it soon got easier.

On the road to recovery

We gradually got my blood pressure under control, but my kidneys still refused to do their job. What I wanted most was to go home. But when a physical therapist came to see me for the first time, I realized just how far I was from being discharged.

Even sitting up in bed wore me out so much that I always needed a nap afterward. But I had a plan in my head, and I was determined to see it through. We had tickets to the Toten Hosen concert in August. I wanted to be there. That was my goal.

In tiny, tiny steps, I really did get better. Soon after, I was moved to a regular floor. Then a complication (arterial bleeding) after a biopsy of my left kidney landed me back in the ICU. Thankfully, it was only for 24 hours, and then I was back on the regular floor.

I began walking down the hallway every day with the physical therapist, using a walker. It's unbelievable how exhausting a little bit of walking can be. But practice makes perfect, as they say. So I stuck stubbornly to my plan. Three times a week I was wheeled down to dialysis, and I shuffled through the hallways at the speed of a limping snail, my plan still firmly in mind.

My kidney values were checked in my blood regularly. The doctors gave me hope that my kidney function could still improve. There was still plenty of tissue that was only acutely damaged and could recover, so there was hope that I wouldn't have to be on dialysis permanently.

Dialysis can take a break!

Right before the Pentecost holiday weekend, an attending nephrologist (a kidney specialist) stood in front of me and said the one sentence that mattered so much to me: “Your kidney values have improved so much that we feel comfortable pausing dialysis.” I couldn't believe it at first, but it held. My numbers kept getting better, bit by bit, and I could close the chapter on dialysis.

At the beginning of June, I was finally allowed to leave the hospital, without a walker, just the way I'd pictured it. I kept building up my strength. In July, we even got to take a week's vacation at Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria with my sister and her family. It did all of us so much good!

A happy ending with Die Toten Hosen

And then August came, and what can I say: we drove to the concert and it was incredible! When we got home that night, none of us had a voice left, but we had made unforgettable family memories that I wouldn't trade for anything.

I'm back at work now, too. But one thing is certain: I never want to go back to where I was this spring. We've cut a lot of the stress out of our daily lives. What matters most to me is my family, and with all these favorite people of mine, I want to make many more memories. Honestly, I don't need anything more than that to be happy.