Man’s high blood pressure signaled kidney disease hiding in plain sight
In 2013, Scott Williams was having a pretty great life. He was 30, happily married with a baby on the way and with a good job in sales management. He felt great, too, so great that he never went to the doctor.
Then one day in July of that year he noticed a little burst blood vessel in one of his eyes. Google told him that might be a sign of high blood pressure. Williams went down to the CVS and took his own blood pressure: 200/100. Super high.
That got him to the doctor, where he underwent a battery of tests.
When they asked him back the next day to test again at CHI St. Luke’s Hospital in The Woodlands, Williams’ wife, Vargo, knew that wasn’t good. “I got the feeling something was very, very wrong,” she said.
She was right. Williams had advanced kidney disease, his kidneys functioning at 3 percent to 5 percent of normal. A lack of outward symptoms of kidney disease is not rare.
Williams’ kidney disease, which probably lurked in his body for years, could have been detected had he seen a
physician regularly. But the common symptoms of kidney disease — tiredness, muscle cramping, swollen feet, changes in urination — didn’t ever show up. His principle symptom, high blood pressure, is famously “silent.”
That day, Williams became one of 101,000 Americans (as of last fall) waiting for a kidney transplant. Only about 17,000 patients receive kidneys each year, the majority from deceased donors.
“It’s unconscionable how many are on the donor list,” said Dr. Wesley Mayer, a urologist at Houston Methodist Hospital. Patients waiting for a transplant often require dialysis to substitute for the action of a working kidney. “Dialysis has a profound effect on the quality of a patient’s life,” Mayer said.
Williams became one of the lucky ones. Both of his brothers volunteered to donate. “I didn’t even really have to ask,” Williams said.
His younger brother, Blaine, was initially rejected, but when he was tested again he proved to be a 100 percent match. “The day after the match, I went into the hospital to have the baby,” Vargo “It’s unconscionable how many are on the donor list.” Williams said.
When little Aubrey was 11 weeks old, Scott and Blaine Williams went into Methodist for the transplant. Dr. Alvin Goh, a urologist at Methodist, removed a kidney from Blaine Williams through a 1-inch incision at his navel. Mayer then transplanted the kidney into Scott Williams.
“Blaine did beautifully and sailed through,” Goh said. “He saw his older brother and really wanted to help him, and he gave of himself. In the scheme of things, it was a non-event for him.”