Hello, My name is Rune. You should be warned: There is very little that can be done to stop me from talking.

Aside from being tall and stunningly handsome I have polycystic kidney disease. The diagnosis came when I was 21, now I'm 40 and have a gfr of 25.

It took me a long time to learn how to ask questions so for the first 17 years of managing my kidney disease I knew nothing. My kidneys were a big black bubble that followed me everywhere and blocked my view of the TV when I got home. But I didn't mind. I took my drugs every day and took my bubble out for fun at least three nights a week. Being unable to ask questions meant there was no talk of urines and purines, protein and blood so I was safe from my disease. But I didn't know anything, I just assumed. Everyone has this pain. Everyone has high blood pressure. Everyone is tired.

One day I went to see a new GP and we had an argument about me losing weight. That is to say, he spoke calmly and politely while I argued. He's younger than me so perhaps I was feeling brave, or bully-ish, when I told him I had no plans of getting up at 5am to do Boot Camp and I certainly didn't see the need to pay a personal trainer to yell at me. After the session I got on-line and joined the first gym I could find. It doesn't make sense, but I knew he was right.

At my next visit, a week later, he didn't refuse to see me and the barriers between doctor and patient had broken down so I asked my first real question, "How are my kidneys functioning?"

A gfr of 50% gave me a bit of a surprise. Like everything else about me I had put my kidney function in the top ten percent. Fifty wasn't even a pass! My first question didn't give me the answer I was looking for but I didn't go back to my life of ignorance, I followed it up with another question, "Why?" Many, many questions later I now know how to ask my kidney specialist about test results and nausea, sore hands and drugs and though it can be scary knowing what's going on it's a hell of a lot better than sitting at home with your bubble.