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Hi - I'm Helen, I'm 28 and was told a week ago that I probably have

IgA Nephropathy, although the biopsy is not until the spring. So far

the symptoms are just blood and protein - my blood pressure is fine,

and I feel OK, which is part of why this has been such a hard thing

to accept. I have 2 children, aged 4 and 2, so this has hit me hard,

but I'm trying to stay positive. The consultant even told me this

can go away on it's own, but perhaps that's too much to hope for..?

I have been doing a lot of research into this over the last week, a

lot of which has scared me senseless, but I did discover that there

appears to be a link between autoimmune diseases such as this, and

allergies. I have had a marked increase in the amount of things I

have become intolerant to since the symptoms began a couple of years

ago. I have always suffered from allergic rhinitis, but now I can't

eat fresh fruit or nuts, and I seem to react to everything. I read

that the IgA antibody is the one that attacks foreign things in the

system, and a lot of what allergies are is the body deciding to

attack something it perceives as bad. In this disease, it's the

kidneys.

I have read this theory, and I would love to hear from people about

it, that the reason we suffer from autoimmune diseases and allergies

is because we dont have parasites for the body to attack so it

attacks harmless things instead. Research into using gut worms in

people with ulcerative colitis and crohns disease as well as people

with allergies has shown amazing results. Does anyone else know

anything about this? I've not heard it related to this particular

disease, but surely there's a possibility.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing from others in this group. I'm

having a really hard time getting my head around all this and would

welcome your messages.

Helen.