Dad’s Kidneys

Posted by Andy Baio

Make a fist. That’s the size of a regular kidney. Now hold your breath and take a look at this. (Warning: Icky medical photo.)

That’s a photo of Dedair’s father’s polycystic kidneys, which were successfully removed a year ago. Weighing between 16 to 18 pounds combined, they were the second-largest set of kidneys the University of Pennsylvania has ever seen. The staff retained them for teaching purposes. Blecch!

Comments

    You do realize that “retained for teaching purposes” roughly translates to “whipped out when the kegger gets boring,” right?

    It is now a little after midnight. I was thinking of partaking in a sandwich or some kind of late evening snack. Not going to happen now. Thank you very much Andy.

    OK Kiddies – here it is ! I HAVE kidneys just like this , and yes the “bobbles” are in fact bubbles- they are fiberous and fluid filled cysts. They are filled with other goodies too – sometimes even infectious goodies. And Yes , this is painful ( duh!), so the next time you see somebody with a big gut and think “Geez! What a fat slob! – well just remember this picture and realize that some of us didn’t choose to look the way we do! That is why these are called “inflictions”. :^P

    Oh ,yeah, by the way , the really exciting part of this whole thing is that you can very easily die a long painful death from this stuff – and there is a 50/50 chance that you will pass this very same disease on to your children! Kinda makes a case for the use of condoms- doesn’t it?

    Have a nice day!

    OH MY GOD THESE THINGS ARE BLOODY ALIENS! WHO THE HELL HAD THESE? I AM IN A STATE OF NAUSEA

    i havent eaten in like 24 hrs and i was about to go eat something and im like right after this one and i look and there are those kidneys

    They’re so disgusting, how could someone walk around with those things on their back. Geeze that must of been painful. Gross, gross, gross.

    gross, but interesting. Nobody asked how we was after getting them taken out…I hope he’s doing good!

    I’d like to reiterate that warning request about graphic content. My back is still itching.

    To Andy; Wow. Are you holding up well?

    Is there a web site or something with additional information on this condition? This whole thing makes me want to donate to cure reaserch or something.

    Thank you. I too have polycystic kidney disease. So does my mother and so did my grandfather. He went through a few years on dialysis and finally received a transplant. And yes, the biggest fear is that one of my two boys may have it too. But I thank you for the true image.

    i cant get over those kidneys!

    i keep looking at them over and over w/ amazement.

    is this person ok.what happened ?

    is he on dialysis or recently transplanted?

    i went to dedair.com and its a lampshade co.

    what did they feel like ?

    was breathing hard?

    the human body sure can whip up some pretty amazing shit

    good luck

    wow. when i was searching google images i had nothing to search for so i just searched “kidneys” hoping to find something cool then i saw your picture and i was all “that is so awesome…” but i feel real sorry for that dude. how is he now? d’ya mind if i save the picture? i think my friends would feel interested. oh yeah and all those dudes who said eww and gross and stuff…it’s just lucky you didn’t get that disease. oh and Andy (is that right?) put Gross medical picture or something like that…right now i feel hungrier than ever..i think it’s because those kidneys look like meat. o_O

    i was searching “kidney” to prove a kid at school wrong about their location in the body. well i realized i was right but didn’t stop after i got my answer because i saw this picture. i hope this guy is alright and i hope he knows that God is always with him..and all those people out there that have this same problem..God bless you and i hope you make it through.

    How the HECK does a guy walk around with that shoving every organ in his abdomin down and out!!?? For goodness sake they are HUGE even in comparison to the nurses hands! Why is there a black cyst? This could be the 8th wonder of the world i reckon.

    wow…i was looking up kidneys for a project and needed apic but now im a little freaked…yeah im going to avoid ur site.um..where the hell did you get this pic?!

    ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!1 That is so disgusting!! You guys are crazy!!! ewww I cant get over it!!! just take that picture off the internet!!! for Gods sake!!!!!

    I too have PKD, and my kidneys aren’t that bad yet. It is very sad, and yes very painful. As your kidneys grow, and get my infected with cyst, they do run into other organs and put pressure on places that aren’t suppose to have pressure. I am 32 years old and they say in 5 years i will be on dialysys, and on a transplant list. I don’t mind your jokes, and i am sure it is easier to make jokes than to imagine you might have the same thing in your body. All I ask is be passionate, because it is a life changing event, and it is not a fun disease to have. If you have any real comments or questions, please contact me at [email protected] or do a google search for polycystic kidney disease. There is no cure!!

    That is awesome! Those kidneys are huge! And i thought disecting a cat was bad.

    I’m amazed at the size of those kidneys! It’s questionable how anyone could survive with kidneys that big.

    I don’t find them gross, but fascinating.

    Far out thats a nasty site, my daughter just had her polycystic kidney removed at 9 mths old the cysts are more clustered but it was only 2cm where as a normal new born babys kidney is 3-4cm’s. thankyou for sharing, i have a picture but i dont know how to post it. i’ll try later

    wow! i want to become a doctor to help those guys that need help.and those people who wrote ew gross and shits like that.you have things just like that in your body. so becareful of what you say before you regret it.and i hope your all better now to that dude.and if i become a doctor.i will really make sure that those things wont be hapening in the future.and God is going to help me achieve that too. i PROMISE!

    thats some screwed up kidneys. im sitting in class searching kidneys and then THAT shows up….

    i agree with all you guys who think its gross. but i have this disease along with my mother, 1 of my sisters and my niece. my mam is recovering from a kidney transplant which she got after waiting 2 years for it. she is one of the lucky ones, some people wait even longer or until its too late. its the most painfull experience, not only having the disease but having to watch the rest of my family go through the same thing.

    I am glad to see that this picture is getting some much needed and deserved attention. I too, have PKD. It is a terrible disease and is more common than you think. To all of you viewing this picture: Imagine how it feels walking around with what is essentially a “ticking time bomb” in your body. PKD is a life threatening, hereditary kidney disease. It causes pain (obviously), High Blood Pressure, aneurysms, stroke, water rentntion, blood in the urine, kidney stones, frequent UTI’s, heart problems, etc. I am 28 years old. Both of my kidneys’ are the size of footballs. I had heart surgery when I was 21 because of problems related to the kidney disease. I have high blood pressure, frequent UTI’s, kidney infections and headaches. There is NO cure and NO treatment for this disease! It’s very sad. If you feel called to learn more about this disease, you can visit the PKD foundation’s website at http://www.pkdfoundation.org. Or, you can even visit my personal page on their website by visiting http://www.pkdcure/goto/chrissy.stere. Thank you for reading.

    I think that it looks cool. I had part of my left kidney removed about 7 years ago. Wow! Was the kidney diseased?

    Oh, my god! That’s what mine look like. Both of my kidneys measure to 20cm. And I’m only 33.

    my very young friend who has sufferings from kidney malfuntions, she goes on dialisis,she often cried me out,the pain that she has truely incounter, she said that,kidney is really emportant organ system,in our body,as what she verbalized. oh,, my friend i love you, hope you wil recover soon.

    next week i am going to have my first scan done because my doctor think i may have this due to a ultra sound that i had a year ago. i am very worry and nervious because i want to live to be a mother and raise my kids.

    Unbelieveable. Yes, those are cysts; Polycystic Kidney is what it looks like. Just diagnosed with this myself; I’m 48 and no where near this stage yet. Hope he received a transplant and doing well, not the alternative. A very scary disease to have and yes, quite painful. My god the pain those must have caused.

    i have never seen anything like this i didnt think it would look like this.

    Yes, these are real and people do live with them, and die from them. I lost my father and two of my brothers to this disease at ages 50, 49 and 40. My last remaining brother at 53 has just undergone a kidney transplant with his wife acting as donor. His kidneys weighed 7 and 11 lbs. and were the size of footballs. He lost over 30 lbs. in two days as a result of the surgery (water retention, etc.) and his huge stomach disappeared. His new kidney is performing perfectly and at two weeks out, he is already looking and feeling so much better. I just wish my father and other two brothers had this opportunity before they died. Now I have my nieces and nephews to worry about. And no, luckily I don’t have the disease. It was a 50/50 coin toss and I lucked out.

    I have just recieved the photos from my cat scan. Mine now measure 12″ x 10″ x 6″ they fill my chest cavity and go from my heart to my groin. Very painfull. So we are now talking with surgeons to remove both and prepare me for dialysis. My grandfather died before they could do anything, my father has had two transplants (1st one rejected after 15yrs) my brother is more or less at the same stage as me and my sons aren’t old enough to be tested yet. As you said Lisa,something to worry about in the future.great to hear that your brother is doing well. Send him my regards.

    My brother’s kidneys were just removed just this morning. His left kidney was so big, he couldn’t eat, since it was pushng on his stomach. Our father died of PKD a year ago. (He lost 4 siblings to this terrible disease). My sister has it, my niece has it, as well as many cousins. Another sister of mine is donating one of her kidneys, after her final testing, to our brother. We can only hope for the best.

    I’m a student nurse. I looked up polycystic kidneys on google as a study aide. This came up and made me so happy. I know it may be gross to a lot of you but it’s completely fascinating to people in the medical field. 🙂

    Love awesome genetic anomalies.

    Some of you should be ashamed of your comments. That man would have been in a lot of pain & none of you who simply commented saying ‘eww this should be removed etc’ will ever have any idea of that. AWFUL.

    Ill tell you something this is not funny i had a man that die for this and it is nasty but thats why we are here for to help and dont play like that because you never know what going to happend to you. att nurse

    dont play like that and dont say those words because you can feel bad if something similar happend to a member of your family

    Poor guy. And you guys making jokes ’bout it and saying it gross just think that some people have to LIVE with that.

    To anyone with PDK or any medical illness i wish you good luck and hope you are OK.

    SO GUYS BEING THOUGHTLESS SHUT UP!!!!!!

    Just curious to how tall / big the guy is that they came out of, or how squashed his other organs were?

    Reasons why I run for kidney charities #135

    Also wondering why some of you idiots clicked on a picture labelled ‘kidneys’ if you are squeamish?

    Clearly a bunch of kids looking for ‘gross out comedy style pictures’ These are genuine diseases… and should make you think twice about your lifestyle, even if the conditions are genetic, people seem to think that if you can’t see it, it’s not damaged…. hence smokers and cancer ignorance.

    Also another reason why compulsory organ donation is a good idea, some people are unlucky enough to need it, if you are lucky and have never experienced anything like this then don’t slag it off – you are ignorant of facts and need to get re-educated…. (side note, no idea how those American SAT tests of word association test anything other than memory…or ability to read)

    Hopefully everyone can get their kidneys soon, good luck to those with this disease as it seems quite nasty..

    Gee, I have a pair of kidneys just like those, but they’re still inside me as they still produce urine. May I pass that picture on to a group that I’m part of so that folk can see for real what they look like?

    Gee, I have a pair of kidneys just like those, but they’re still inside me as they still produce urine. May I pass that picture on to a group that I’m part of so that folk can see for real what they look like?

    Believe me I am amused. Oh GOD it’s beatiful. I am happy that it is not anymore in anyone’s body.

    I find this interesting and cool. I’m still gonna eat my dinner though. But, in all honesty, I wanna take the pen in my hand or a needle and pop those bubbles. Then take individual samples of.what comes out of.each bubble and test it. But mostly pop it to.see what happens and to get rid of them

    ew what kind of kidenys is that? by the way is that our real kidneys cuz i would kill myself if they are but is that really real dads kidneys?

    I came across this thread and article and at first I thought I wouldn’t comment because a majority of the replies were years old. As I continued to read, however, I was disgusted yet intrigued by some of the comments and responses. I understand what those kidneys look like is graphic, crazy-looking, and out of the ordinary for anyone who isn’t clued in about this disease. BUT IT IS REAL. THESE ARE NOT ONLY HIS KIDNEYS, BUT UPWARDS OF 600,000 PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES ALONE. I have this disease. It is genetic, hereditary, and sometimes a gene mutation that is unexplainable. But it is NOT contagious. You can’t catch it, or randomly develop it. You are born with it. I have to look at this image and picture not only my own gigantc kidneys – but my father’s, my little brother’s, my aunt, and my uncle who has been on dialysis for 15 years, my grandmother who went undiagnosed for most of her life because no one knew what was wrong with her.. If it’s scary to you, learn about it. Spread awareness just as you would cancer, and do us all a favor. So many of us suffer in silence, or as the commenter above said, walk around with the judgements of others all while dealing with THESE inside of us. It’s not pleasant and is still widely regarded as something non-deadly and sometimes not even thought of as a serious disease. Many people not only die from the long wait for a transplant, but other major health complications associated with these abnormally large beans inside of us. I was told personally that my cysts are “innumerable ” and I am quite positive as big and ugly as those in this picture.

    Thank you to the original poster for sharing this. I hope many others who need to see this will stumble upon it.

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