Keep KidneyFoods Free

I didn't build this website as a developer. I built it as a patient.

At 29 years old, my life changed in a single day.

I was working, studying, living normally — when I suddenly discovered my kidneys had failed. The cause was IgA nephropathy. There were no warnings. No time to prepare. I was rushed into emergency dialysis through a catheter in my neck, in critical condition, without truly understanding what was happening to me.

What followed was 7 years and 3 months of life measured in three sessions a week.

Three times a week, every week, the hospital became a second home. I came to know everyone there — the security guards, the orderlies, the nurses, the doctors. I left my job. I left the university I was studying at. I put my life on hold and focused on one thing: surviving.

Those years were filled with things I wouldn't wish on anyone. The strict food restrictions. The nausea. The back pain. The sleepless nights. The surgeries — a catheter in my neck, then my chest, then a fistula in my left arm, then surgery to remove my parathyroid gland. The crushing financial weight of treatment that never stops.

And through all of it, my mother never left my side.
Through every moment I was irritable, exhausted, and barely myself — she was there.
I would not be here without her.

Today, I am one of the lucky ones. I have received a kidney transplant.

And with this second chance, I wanted to do something that mattered. Something that could reach every person sitting in a dialysis chair right now, every family member searching the internet at midnight trying to figure out what their loved one can eat tomorrow.

That's why KidneyFoods exists.

Not to make money. But to make your life — and the lives of the people you love — a little easier. To help you eat well, stay longer with your family, keep doing the things you love, and live as fully as any person with kidney disease possibly can.

This is free. It will always be free. Because that's the whole point.

If it helps even one person, it was worth building.

— From a fellow kidney patient, with love 🙏

Keeping this site running has real costs every month — the database, the hosting on Google Cloud, the bandwidth that grows every time a new person finds this resource. I cover it myself, because I believe no one with kidney disease should ever hit a paywall looking for help.

If KidneyFoods has helped you or someone you love, a small monthly contribution — even just a coffee — makes it possible to keep going.