The kidneys' main job is to filter your blood of waste. It basically makes urine. That's not all it does however. It also secretes a hormone that lets your body create red blood cells. Red blood cells give you energy and stamina.

Elijah's disease, like many others creates scarring in the kidneys. Think of kidneys as a strainer. The scarring plugs the holes that the blood is supposed to go through. In doing so it acts like putting your thumb over a hose, the blood moves through the kidney much faster than it would normally causing the high blood pressure that is so common with kidney disease patients. The kidney is not made for this kind of pressure so it causes more scarring until the kidneys function is depleated enough that the waste begins building in the body. This is called uremia.

People with uremia suffer from problems like, nausea, vomiting, diaherea, itching all over the body, fatigue, lack of appetite, pitting adema, (extreme swelling of the feet, legs etc.) and bad taste in their mouth. People who are uremic can often look pale or yellow due to the amount of toxicity in their system. If left untreated, someone with kidney failure will die. There are only two options for someone with end stage renal failure, dialysis or a transplant.

Thankfully we have two kidneys, and you only need one to have enough function to live a normal life. One common question is whether or not Elijah's disease is in both kidneys. Renal disease always affects both kidneys. The only time that one kidney is affected and the other fine is if a person had cancer. One kidney could have a growth leaving the other undamaged.

Interestingly, some people are born with one kidney. In most cases their one kidney is slightly larger than average and does almost as much work as two would do! Other people are born with three kidneys which in most cases are slightly smaller and do the work of only two!

Below we've included a link to the American Kidney Foundation. They are ranked an A+ charity on CharityWatch.org. A+'s are rare. Among them are groups like the Red Cross.

Facts about Kidney Disease
More than twenty million Americans have kidney problems. These problems include urinary tract infections (UTIs), kidney stones, kidney cancer, polycystic kidney disease (PKD), nephrotic syndrome and genetic disorders. If any of these conditions are left untreated for too long, they can lead to chronic kidney disease (CKD). This is when permanent damage keeps the kidneys from working as well as they should. When CKD is allowed to progress beyond the early stages, the kidneys begin to work so poorly that they are said to be failing. At this point, the only treatment options are dialysis or kidney transplant.
-American Kidney Foundation

National Kidney Foundation