Kidney failure changes athlete, business owner's life

In less than two years, Alejandro Plascencia has gone from a former boxer-turned-restaurant-owner who loved to go for walks in the Bear Paw Mountains to someone who struggles walking down the street.

Plascencia, an enrolled member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe, is now dealing with difficulties related to failing kidneys brought on by high blood pressure and made worse by a recent heart attack. As a result, Plascencia now spends the bulk of his day in bed or on the couch in his home in Country View Village on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, he said.

He is now on a waiting list for a kidney transplant.

   Though 42, Plascencia said his lack of vigor and fragile health makes him feel like he is 70.

   "I never thought I would get this old this fast," he said.

   Plascencia said he learned about his kidneys November of 2015, when he went to the doctor after experiencing cold sweats and fatigue. The doctor did several tests and said his kidneys were in poor shape. Plascencia said his blood pressure was about 240 over 190, and was told by the doctor that when blood pressure gets that high people are in danger of having a stroke or heart attack.

"It was a big shock to me," Plascencia said. "I was always careful in what I did, healthwise. I always made sure I was in shape."

After he began taking pills to reduce his blood pressure, Plascencia said, that was when he began to not feel like himself. As a result, he eventually had to close down Norma's café, which he owned and operated behind Stone Child College.

"(The café) was going great until I found out about my kidneys and stuff, and then I found that I would not be able to do that anymore," Plascencia said.

Eventually, Plascencia and his fiancee, Tricia Friede, and 16-year-old son, Anthony, moved to Spokane so Plascencia could have better access to doctors and be closer to his sister and two nieces, he said.

When he moved back in January after Friede accepted a job with the Box Elder School district, Plascencia's health problems were made worse when he had a heart attack.

"Since the heart attack, I just don't do nothing," he said. "I stay home, stay in bed and don't do much, which is really hard for me, because I am so used to being outside doing stuff or always doing something."

When Plascencia wakes up now, he takes six medications and takes a heart pill at night.

Pain and fatigue are constant, unwelcome companions. He said many mornings he wakes up with a headache that eases up as the day goes on but returns at night.

Plascencia said aspirin he takes for his heart helps with some of the pain of a headache.

His kidneys remain a problem. Plascencia said his left one only works at 11 percent of its capacity, while his right only at 22 percent. Once his right operates on 15 percent, doctors will place him on dialysis. Doctors could remove his weaker kidney and he could still function, but there are worries that the remaining would not be strong enough.

Plascencia said he used to wake up early to go to the café and work in the kitchen 7:30 a.m until 8:30 p.m, exercised or waking up at 4 a.m and spend hours in the Bear Paw Mountains or out hunting and fishing.

Despite being an athlete, Plascencia never used to read nutrition labels or pay attention to what he would eat, he said.

He said that after his heart attack, his fiance has pretty much thrown the salt out of the house. When Friede and Anthony eat hamburgers or Indian tacos, he eats salads or fish sticks.

When he leaves the house now, it is likely to attend doctor appointments in Havre, Great Falls or Spokane for routine X-rays, blood tests and other medical procedures, he said.

Though he has told doctors he wants to work, Plascencia said, he is told the potential for stress means that is not an option.

Household chores he used to do, like splitting firewood, are now done by Anthony. Though he does dishes with little trouble, Pascencia said, if he sweeps or mops, he has to stop to catch his breath.

He said that when he feels up to doing a chore, like vacuuming or laundry, his family, out of concern, often insists he not do it.

"I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs, thinking what can I do now," Plascencia said.

Since his heart attack and the discovery of his kidney condition, Plascencia said, family has come to mean a lot more to him. He said that he has always been close to Anthony, but the health scare has brought them closer.

Plascencia said not only Friede but also Anthony constantly asks him how he is feeling and if he has taken his medication. He added that Anthony is often afraid to leave him, and rather than going out with friends stays at home to make sure his father is alright.

"I will be laying in my room watching TV or sitting in here. 'Are you OK, are you feeling alright?' I mean he is always making sure that I am doing OK," Pascencia said. "He goes, 'I know you are bored, and you don't want to be here anymore, I know you want to go outside, but just look at it this way, you are still here with me.'"

Plascencia said he also worries Anthony's concern could make him grow up too fast. He said he remembers that with his mother who also had bad kidneys. When he would hear her get up at night he would get up, relieved to find that she was OK and had only gotten up to get a drink of water.

"It was really hard on me, and I was thinking about that with my son, I don't want to worry him as much as he is worried already," Plascencia said.

In the past two years, he said, death has become much more real for Plascencia. He said that sometimes he stays up until 3 or 4 a.m because he is afraid he will die.

He said that he has brought up the subject of what Anthony and Friede would do if he did die. It's something he said is hard for all of them, but it is something they have to be prepared for.

He said he still holds out hope that he will once again be able to once again be healthy and able to work,

Plascencia is now on a waiting list for a kidney, but his name is one among thousands of others. He said that because he has one kidney that is somewhat functioning, he is further down the list. His mother received a kidney transplant from her sister in 2000 and was able to live a healthy and normal life for another 10 years.

That possibility gives him hope; he said, adding that, though he is frustrated with the pace of things, he has gained patience that he never previously had.

When and if he gets a kidney transplant, Plascencia said, his first order of business will be to once again open his café. For now, though, he said he spends his days praying for the strength to endure, waiting for the news that a donor has been found and hoping that each day will be better than the last.