While Dave was in the shower she began to dress. As she pulled on her shoes she noticed her legs and ankles were swollen more than they had been the day before. She selected a pair of comfortable low shoes and put it out of her mind. “Pregnant women could expect their feet to swell,” she thought. Half an hour later they were on their way to work. As Dave drove, she became more uncomfortable. Every part of her body seemed to itch. She didn’t want to admit it but the itching started early last night. Maybe it was just a phase.

As the morning passed the itching got worse. It seemed to involve her whole body. Her shoes felt tight and she noticed that her feet were even more swollen than they had been in the morning. She called her doctor and was advised to come in immediately. She went to Dave and told him she had to see the doctor. He decided to go with her.

When the doctor saw Lynn she asked when she had last gone to the bathroom. Lynn sat quiet for a moment, then replied, “Yesterday, just after noon.” Then she buried her head in her hands and started to sob. She already knew what would happen next. She had been through this before.

September 1975

Lynn was in a hospital bed. Tubes in here arm connected her to a machine. She was undergoing dialysis. Her kidneys shut down about two days before. Most of the patients in the room were watching TV and reading. Lynn however was holding her stomach with both hands. Shortly after she was put on the machine she had cramps, worse than anything she had ever experienced during a period. They got so bad just before the end of the treatment that she could do nothing but hold her belly. It would take almost a day for them to go away. She knew she could not live without this machine but the pain was terrible.

Two weeks later her kidneys started to function properly. On a return trip to the doctor he told her not to take any more of her birth control pills. Lynn was not a sexually active sixteen-year old. She had some trouble with irregular and painful periods and the doctor had prescribed the pills to alleviate the problem. After taking them two months the kidney problem surfaced. A check with the manufacturer’s hot line indicated this problem was a side effect that previously had been reported by six other women. Discontinuing the pills was the solution. Lynn decided irregular periods were a minor problem compared to the treatments.