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It's a family affair

Both of my brothers have ADPKD as well.

The odds of a PKD parent having a child with PKD are one in two. The odds of having two with PKD are one in four, or 25%. Three? a 12.5% chance. We "beat the odds" (i.e. the PKD is strong in this line).

Thankfully - for me - my PKD is less aggressive (although still not good). While I have a bit of a "PKD belly", it's not excessive. And instead of true pain, I only suffer from discomfort.

Not so for my little brother.

Despite being nine years younger, his kidneys are MUCH larger. You can actually see the outline of them on his belly.

And instead of discomfort, he experiences true pain.

So much so that he recently went in for surgery to have the size of some of his larger cysts reduced.

The surgery is called Percutaneous (through the skin) Sclerotherapy and is an outpatient procedure.

Larger cysts are identified through a CT scan or MRI, during which the doctor inserts a needle to aspirate (drain) and then sclerose (destroy) the inner lining (often by injecting alcohol) to prevent the cyst from filling with fluid once again.

I'm happy to report that, while sore, my brother says that the pain is down and that the procedure
was a good decision.
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