![John Romeo](/kidneychain/images/people/smjohn_romeo.jpg)
“The day my granddaughter was born, in October 2011, I went to the doctor and he noticed something. After a CAT scan, they told me there was something in there. Sure enough, it was the same cancer I had in my first kidney 23 years earlier.
“They pulled the second one out in January 2012. And from then until the end of January 2014, I went without kidneys.
“I started on hemodialysis, and that wasn’t a lot of fun. I went to peritoneal dialysis, which was every day, five times a day, but it was much easier on me.
“I didn’t enjoy driving home at night; I’d go at night after work for dialysis treatments, and I’d be driving in a daze. I had trouble sleeping and actually had insomnia and headaches with hemodialysis, so peritoneal dialysis was a huge difference.
“But, you know, I thought I felt good before the surgery, but I feel so much better now. I guess I had gotten used to it after almost 18 to 24 months. This has been just fantastic. I feel great.”