Resident Spreads Awareness of Kidney Disease
By Carol Broeder
Arizona Range News
Local resident Bonnie Diehl wants Willcox to know more about Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), the world's most common life-threatening genetic disease. Her reason for caring is her husband, William "Billy" Diehl, who didn't find out he has PKD until six years ago, at the age of 48.
The PKD Foundation says the disease affects one in every 500 people.
That's more than Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, sickle cell anemia, and Huntington's disease combined.
Yet, more than 600,000 Americans live with PKD, and only 100,000 know it, the foundation states. March is National Kidney Month, and next Wednesday is World Kidney Day.
Common symptoms of PKD include high blood pressure, constant or intermittent pain in the back and side of the stomach, blood in the urine, kidney stones, frequent urinary tract infections, and a family history of kidney problems, heart problems or stroke.
Those who do inherit PKD develop fluid-filled cysts on both kidneys. Over time, these cysts grow bigger and multiply, often leading to kidney failure.
While a normal kidney is about the size of a human fist, PKD kidneys can grow to be the size of a football or larger, and weigh as much as 38 pounds each.
Fifty-four year-old Billy Diehl is a Willcox native, the son of Walter and Maybelle Diehl, who owned the Shell Gas Station, which was located at 590 N. Haskell Ave.
Maybelle died at 63 of liver cancer, and Walter, who had Alzheimer's, died at age 78.
The family was told that Walter died because "everything shut down."
It is possible that one of Billy's parents may have had PKD, but no one knew it at that time, Diehl told the Range News.
"Billy has three brothers and a sister who don't have it," she said. "But then none of them has been tested."
There is no treatment and no cure for the disease, with dialysis and transplant the only options.
But there is hope.
The drug Tolvaptan recently received "fast track" status from the government, said a statement issued last Thursday by the PKD Foundation.
Fast track programs through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), "are designed to speed up the development and review of new drugs with exciting potential to treat serious or life-threatening conditions," stated a release from the Otsuka Maryland Research Institute, Inc., the company testing Tolvaptan.
The drug is being evaluated as a way to stop or slow cyst growth in PKD patients. It may also alleviate complications, including increased renal size, hypertension, proteinuria, and renal pain.
The PKD Foundation, which says it's the only organization in the world dedicated to funding research for the disease, supported the basic research leading to the clinical trial of the drug. Phase II studies are complete, and global Phase III clinical trials are expected to begin soon.
In the meantime, Billy continues to do his job at Cross Spear Marble, Inc., which provides not only an income, but also much-needed medical insurance.
At 54, Billy is now in the end stage of the disease, and is on a kidney transplant list.
The couple has four grown children, two of whom have PKD and cannot be donors themselves.
Diehl said that her husband wants the other two children to save their kidneys in case their siblings need them later on.
"I am hoping that I can be a donor," she says.