This is the story of the beginning of my journey and my inspiration for blogging. In September 2017, a few weeks after my 26th birthday, I was admitted to the ER with chest pains and ended up being hospitalized overnight for severe hypertension (high blood pressure). My labs showed that my kidneys were only functioning at about 50% at that time, categorizing me as having stage 3 kidney disease. A few months later, after extensive testing and a renal biopsy, I was diagnosed with dense deposit disease (DDD). DDD is a rare kidney disease that affects only 2-3 in a million people. There is no cure, no guaranteed treatment options,…