Ginger Murphy: With this disease I think it's the not knowing what's going to come next or is this test going to be it? I don't think it's possible for anyone to not feel that stress.
Question: Does stress impact your rare kidney disease, and how do you manage it?
Ginger Murphy: It definitely is a big factor. I wouldn't say that I necessarily feel it, other than when I'm in the moment of a stressful situation. But I can tell when I have my labs drawn if there's a huge drop I'm like, "I knew that was going to happen," because I had been under a lot of stress. When my mom passed away that was an example of my blood pressure shot up. I was not in a flare, but I was unstable at the time. And I have a doctor who's just amazing, and I called her, she told me what to do, and I did that and that helped lower my blood pressure back down.
But I definitely have seen it in test results. If I know, even if work is stressful, and then I'm like, "I don't really want to get my labs drawn today because I just don't know." And you're always worried in the back of your mind, or I am always worried I'm going to get that test and it's going to be under 20 and then everything's going to start happening. We're going to go to see the transplant team. And so that in itself is a huge stressor for me. When I get stressed out, I usually try to, well, I'll walk away from the problem if I can. And if I'm at work, I will try to step away, go for a walk, go outside for a little bit, try to clear my head until I feel better. But I recently tried yoga as well, and I love that.
And I went with a friend from work and when it was almost over, I had the oddest thing happen to me. I felt like every emotion in my body was released and I literally started crying and there was really no reason to cry. I was just at yoga, but I think it was just the emotional release of everything I was carrying just kind of went out of my body and I started crying and I couldn't even explain it other than I felt so relaxed in that moment. That's been a great help and I do try to do it at home some as well. I'll do a nighttime yoga before I go to bed so that I'm completely relaxed in that moment and that helps. I read. I spend time with my grandkids. They always put a smile on my face. They're amazing.
