Jon and Bryan speak with soccer coach and kidney disease survivor Jeremy Bedig about his journey battling kidney disease
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We talk with soccer coach and kidney disease survivor Jeremy Bedig about his experience with FSGS.
Jeremy’s Kidney Disease Diagnosis and First Transplant
- His passion for soccer as a kid and the path he was on prior to his diagnosis with FSGS at the age of 14
- The weird swelling and symptoms that caused him to go to the doctor and get diagnosed with fast-acting variant FSGS
- The first time he really felt sick, not because of kidney disease but because of the treatment
- His experience trying to keep up with school and soccer while undergoing chemotherapy and taking multiple drugs to battle his condition
- The mental challenge of dealing with a life-threatening diagnosis, and how you struggle to process what it means as you go through the day-to-day experience, especially as a high school student
- The amazing support he received from his parents and grandparents, and how important that support system is for patients
- His experience with dialysis and having a double nephrectomy (where both kidneys are removed) as a junior in high school
- The unique opportunity he got that most of us will never experience
Jeremy’s Second Transplant
- The legal battles he had to fight with his school to allow him to study based on his health situation, and how difficult some teachers made his experience
- How unprepared he was to be a college student, and why he dropped out
- What led him to try being a soccer coach, and how quickly he progressed in his first couple years
- The staph infection that destroyed his new kidney and sent him back onto dialysis for 3 1/2 years, and the emotional toll that took to be back where he was years earlier
- The experience of finding a donor but having it fall through because of a failed test
- The role coaching played in giving him something outside his condition to focus on
- His eventual transplant from a family relative and the special bond that created between them
What Jeremy is Doing Today
- One of the scary realities of being a kidney disease patient: going into the surgery not knowing if you'll have a kidney at the end
- His new coaching career with Diablo Valley College and Contra Costa FC, and the process of receiving his official US Soccer licensing
- His role as a Peer Team Lead with the Nephrotic Syndrome Foundation, and the podcast they are creating
- His desire to spread the word about mental health, and his continued struggles to deal with the PTSD associated with his kidney experience
- Why even though he received amazing care and had an amazing support network, he still often felt alone, which is an opportunity for improvement in the current health care system
- His founding the for the Amplify Athletic Alliance to support the LGBTQ community to share their experiences
- And of course, what Go Be More means to Jeremy
If you liked this episode, check out Jon’s Kidney Disease Story and our interview with Kidney Fighter Marc Coronel.
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Recorded August 26, 2020.
References:
Amplify Athletic Alliance - coming soon
Nephrotic Syndrome Foundation - website
Contra Costa FC - website
Diablo Valley College Soccer - dvc.edu
Guest:
Jeremy Bedig - @coachjeremyb, @ysarb_mot
Hosts:
Bryan Green - @sendaibry, Go Be More Blog
Jon Rankin - @chasejonrankin, Go Be More
Links:
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