Courtney's Commitment

Thank you to Courtney Pisano for sharing her story with us! Courtney is running the 2026 Chicago Marathon with Team Kidney!

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My mom has been a dialysis nurse for 40 years. When I was younger, I always told her I wanted to be a living donor to help patients on dialysis. Unfortunately, during medical school, I found out I had a congenital malformation of my right kidney/ureter, which wasn't picked up during my childhood. My kidney function began declining and during my radiation oncology residency, I had major surgery to try and correct it, since my left kidney was not able to pick up the slack. I was then diagnosed with intrinsic kidney disease as well. The roles had completely changed, and now instead of being able to donate a kidney, I may have to rely on a transplant myself someday.

Since my doctors were able to correct some of the structural damage and I was diagnosed with intrinsic disease relatively early, I hope to be able to keep my kidney function stable for as long as possible. Being a physician myself, it has been challenging as I've always been so focused on my patients' care, now I have to remind myself that I am a patient as well. This means I must stay very diligent about fluids, salt intake, NSAID use; all of which I never needed to factor into my days. I am definitely anxious about my kidney function in the future and whether or not I will need a transplant some day. For now, I try to do everything I can to preserve it and hope that if the time comes, there will be someone as excited as I used to be about donating a kidney!

By spending so much time and effort raising awareness of kidney disease and how it can affect people of all ages, background and from a multitude of disease processes. I think by continuing to raise awareness about the different types of kidney disease, and what factors may contribute to it, it helps those who do not have it understand how much it can affect all types of people. Especially for congenital and genetic kidney disease, as many people seem shocked when I tell them I have congenital kidney disease. Many don't realize that babies, children & young adults are affected by kidney disease.

Have a good understanding of your baseline kidney function when you first find out of your risk factors. Discuss a game plan with your doctors with your doctors about things you can modify or change to protect your kidney function. Ask questions about your particular risks and what they expect in the future. Make sure to have your kidney function checked regularly so that you and your doctors can see if it decreased as soon as possible. Lastly, remember to stay positive and optimistic & focus on what you can change and not what you can't.

I want to be able to maintain my kidney function so that I can continue to take care of my patients and not have to spend hours a week at dialysis, which would take away time in which I could be caring for more of them.

Additionally, I have been a runner since I was a teenager & after competitively running in college, I now enjoy running marathons, especially with charity teams to help others, including Team Kidney! I need to keep my kidneys as healthy as possible, so that I can continue to run for years to come.