STORIES OF
Linni Xu
FAILURE
AND HOPE by Nicole Laidler
When kidney disease strikes one person, it affects their entire family – often their community. No one knows this better than 17-year-old Ike Zhang, whose mother Linni Xu was diagnosed with renal failure in 2003.
Rebuilding family life after a diagnosis “When we found out that my mom needed dialysis, we were in shock. We never expected it to happen so soon,” says the teenager. “Dialysis is not a short-term thing, and we weren’t prepared.” It was a rude awakening for Linni, whose Asian ethnicity placed her at risk for kidney disease, and whose job as a computer consultant had her travelling across North America more than 300 days each year. “I think I was too tired and too busy,” she says. “At first we started off like any family. We were stressed, depressed and emotional,” remembers Ike. “But then we realized it was a situation that we had to deal with. We needed to make dialysis part of our lifestyle.” Ike’s father found a job that could accommodate his wife’s dialysis schedule. Linni now works for a different company and is no longer required to travel.
After watching his own family struggle to cope with his mother’s diagnosis, Ike was inspired to organize a concert to raise awareness and funds for The Kidney Foundation of Canada. The evening featured members of the Chinese Orchestra and brought in more than $7,000. “We try to defeat the mentality that kidney disease is a burden in your life,” says Ike, who is currently building a website with tips for home hemodialysis patients. “We just try to live with it and do everything anyone else would do.”
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Ike Zhang
PHOTO BRYN GLADDING
The family decided to pursue home hemodialysis in 2007, which allows Linni to complete her dialysis treatments at home with the help of her husband and son. She has also been on the kidney transplant waiting list for five years.
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