During my one and only pregnancy in 2011 is when the symptoms really amped up. The 1st 10-11 weeks went really smoothly, then the swelling, constant vomiting and fatigue really set in. I was put off work at 12 weeks\u00a0 along due to the swelling and being so ill. I was wearing shoes 3 sizes bigger, and could only stand for very limited amounts of time. I was not \u201cglowing\u201d in any way \ud83d\ude05 All of the symptoms could be chalked up to a difficult pregnancy, and I never really thought much more about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
I was blessed with a healthy baby girl, and my symptoms basically disappeared rather quickly following. I lost the weight quickly, and was feeling great once I was all healed up from a C-section. Fast forward to 2014 and back came the \u201cnever ending\u201d flu. I could barely keep anything down, and\u00a0 became dehydrated. I gained 40-45 pounds within just a couple of months. I felt so horrible, and I didn\u2019t even recognize the woman looking back at me in the mirror. I had such low energy, and it took everything out of me just to do the basics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
From 2014-2020, this happened on and off and at one point began to think that it was all in my head. I basically gave up, and became really down. In the Fall of 2020 I ended up at Emerge again with dehydration. When the Doctor walked in to the room, I had a mini meltdown and told him what had been going on. He ran some lab work, and following the results he put in a referral for me to see a Nephrologist. Following a biopsy, I was diagnosed with FSGS in September 2020. It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders just knowing what it was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have had my good and not so good days, but I\u2019ve learned to focus on the cans instead of the can nots. I am learning how to balance things, and to be a little less hard on myself. I am still learning what I can about FSGS, and I\u2019m hopeful that I\u2019ll remain stable for a long time. It can be lonesome dealing with a chronic illness, and a support system is so important. I\u2019m so blessed to have a supportive partner and family, but I sometimes don\u2019t want to burden them with my worries. I have found a wonderful support group on social media, and it\u2019s a wonderful and judgment free place to voice your concerns. It\u2019s also a place of hope and not feeling so alone in your journey with a rare kidney disease. I am looking so forward to attending my very first Nephcure conference this April in NYC, and connecting with some amazing people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have my rough days, but I am blessed and grateful for my life and everyone in it. Remember that it\u2019s totally okay; necessarily really to rest and sometimes say no when need be. Don\u2019t forget to be gentle and compassionate to yourself.\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For a while, I would have flu like symptoms on and off, and no one else around me would be sick. The nausea, dizziness fatigue and sometimes vomiting was not … Leer m\u00e1s<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":36132,"template":"","age-group":[278],"disease-category":[253,252],"class_list":["post-36131","patient-story","type-patient-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","age-group-adults","disease-category-focal-segmental-glomerulosclerosis-fsgs","disease-category-nephrotic-syndrome"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMelissa M.'s FSGS Story | NephCure Patient Story & Hope<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read Melissa M.'s story of living with FSGS and nephrotic syndrome, from early symptoms and diagnosis to navigating life with rare kidney disease.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/es\/historia-del-paciente\/melissa-m\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Melissa M.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Read Melissa M.'s story of living with FSGS and nephrotic syndrome, from early symptoms and diagnosis to navigating life with rare kidney disease.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/es\/historia-del-paciente\/melissa-m\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NephCure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nephcure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-21T17:43:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/46197d15-462a-4922-8276-675deff4aaac-upload_images-IMG_3536-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@nephcure\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutos\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Melissa M.'s FSGS Story | NephCure Patient Story & Hope","description":"Read Melissa M.'s story of living with FSGS and nephrotic syndrome, from early symptoms and diagnosis to navigating life with rare kidney disease.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/es\/historia-del-paciente\/melissa-m\/","og_locale":"es_MX","og_type":"article","og_title":"Melissa M.","og_description":"Read Melissa M.'s story of living with FSGS and nephrotic syndrome, from early symptoms and diagnosis to navigating life with rare kidney disease.","og_url":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/es\/historia-del-paciente\/melissa-m\/","og_site_name":"NephCure","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nephcure\/","article_modified_time":"2026-08-21T17:43:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":2560,"url":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/46197d15-462a-4922-8276-675deff4aaac-upload_images-IMG_3536-scaled.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@nephcure","twitter_misc":{"Tiempo de lectura":"3 minutos"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/patient-story\/melissa-m\/","url":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/patient-story\/melissa-m\/","name":"Melissa M.'s FSGS Story | NephCure Patient Story & Hope","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/patient-story\/melissa-m\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/patient-story\/melissa-m\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/46197d15-462a-4922-8276-675deff4aaac-upload_images-IMG_3536-scaled.jpeg","datePublished":"2025-07-31T01:15:37+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-21T17:43:57+00:00","description":"Read Melissa M.'s story of living with FSGS and nephrotic syndrome, from early symptoms and diagnosis to navigating life with rare kidney disease.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/patient-story\/melissa-m\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"es","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nephcure.org\/patient-story\/melissa-m\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es","@id":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/patient-story\/melissa-m\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/46197d15-462a-4922-8276-675deff4aaac-upload_images-IMG_3536-scaled.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/46197d15-462a-4922-8276-675deff4aaac-upload_images-IMG_3536-scaled.jpeg","width":1920,"height":2560},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/patient-story\/melissa-m\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Patient Stories","item":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/patient-stories\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Melissa M."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/","name":"NephCure","description":"Para enfermedades renales raras","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"es"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/#organization","name":"NephCure","url":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es","@id":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-NephCure-favicon-512x512-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-NephCure-favicon-512x512-1.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"NephCure"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nephcure\/","https:\/\/x.com\/nephcure","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nephcure\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/nephcure\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/Nephcure"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/patient-story\/36131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/patient-story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/patient-story"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"age-group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/age-group?post=36131"},{"taxonomy":"disease-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nephcure.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disease-category?post=36131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}