Meet Dom.

I am now living my best life, and I would love to help other patients like me do the same!

HI, my name is Dom and I have been a kidney patient for pretty much all of my 71+ years and at Stage 4 CKD for the last 15 years. After numerous infections and hospitalizations, bilateral nephrostomies, removal of both kidneys, and a stint on hemodialysis, I received a living donor transplant from my brother-in-law in 2024. While I can never repay the incredible and life-changing gift of his kidney, I hope I can pay a bit of my debt forward by helping other patients dealing with CKD and transplant issues. 

As it happens, I am also a medical scientist, former professor of medicine, and drug developer (mostly oncology and autoimmune diseases) with a Ph.D. in immunology and many years of post-doctoral training and experience. While I am not a physician (let alone a nephrologist) and cannot provide medical advice, I am reasonably well acquainted with kidney physiology, kidney disease, and especially transplantation, immune rejection, and the drugs used for prevention and treatment – both from a technical perspective as well as from personal experience. I hope that my background can enable me to help other kidney patients to better understand what they are facing or going through, their treatment plan, and the what and why of the medicines they are taking (and their side-effects), as well as help them formulate questions to discuss with their doctors if need be. 

Kidney disease, dialysis, and transplantation can be frightening. But I strongly believe that, along with simply talking about issues with someone who has also been there, knowledge is the best antidote to fear. I am now living my best life, and I would love to help other patients like me do the same!