By Cynthia Flash

Special to the Reporter

When Mat Risher graduated from Monroe High School in 2005, he took the first opportunity available to work on his passion – race cars. He started hanging out at the Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, devoting countless hours to promoting drifting, his favorite motorsport.

Despite being diagnosed with lupus in middle school, Risher remained active, describing his life at that time as “going 100 miles per hour”.

For the next seven years, Risher continued to focus on cars.

“I’m a big car guy. I was really involved with the Evergreen Speedway. I used to work behind the scenes, used to go to a lot of car events around the (Puget) Sound,” he said, explaining that he focused on drifting, a driving technique where the driver intentionally over-steers and loses traction in the rear wheels or all tires while maintaining control and driving the car through a corner. “I was doing announcing and promoting and organization behind the scenes, attending meets and car shows. I was making videos for fun on YouTube on the side.”

Then in 2012, Risher’s kidneys failed. Because of his lupus, Risher’s doctors had been monitoring his blood and urine every month. They saw a slow decline in his kidney function.

When Risher was 27 years old, his kidneys could no longer rid his body of fluid and waste. To survive, he went on dialysis at Northwest Kidney Centers’ Kirkland clinic – connected to a machine that did the work of his kidneys three days a week for four hours at a time.

“My life went from 100 miles per hour to 10,” he said. “I went from being very active in the local automotive community to not very active.”

That change was hard. But Risher, now 30, didn’t feel well and he chose to turn away from racing to focus on his health instead. Like him, more than 10 percent of American adults are experiencing the slow, silent decline of chronic kidney disease, and many of them remain unaware until the shock of permanent kidney failure is upon them.

Risher said he’s working to get back to the racetrack.

“Every day is different. Depending on how I’m doing, I have a lot of doubts and tell myself ‘I can’t go back out,’ and a day later I have energy. Those are the days I lean on the most. That’s what I hate most about having dialysis and kidney disease. One day you feel fine and the next day you have no energy, feel drained.”

Right now, Risher said he feels well about 80 percent of the time. And that’s enough to get him through his part-time job at an auto parts store. And it was enough for him to work as a contract employee for Microsoft, helping to design content for its Forza Motorsport racing game. The job allowed him to research cars, compare virtual designs to real-life models for accuracy, build features and test games. He also took photos and videos of cars and connected writers with drivers for articles posted on the Forza blog.

While dialysis keeps Risher alive, cars, racing and the track help energize him.

“The track is something that’s really important to me. Through having lupus and kidney failure, it was a place I could go and escape. The racing, drifting community has been a huge support, keeping me safe and level-headed. The people at the track keep me sane, keep me healthy,” he said.

He also gets to talk cars with one of his Northwest Kidney Centers nurses.

“Whenever he’s connecting me to the dialysis machine, we can talk. We like different cars, but we can talk wheels or engines,” Risher said.

Most people in the car community are surprised to find out that Risher is on dialysis.

“Like mental illness, it doesn’t really show, but there’s a lot of people suffering with it,” he said.

Although he doesn’t talk much about his kidney failure, Risher does want people to know how important it is to be healthy.

“My biggest thing is seeing other people take their health for granted. You don’t know how many people out there would kill to have a day like you’re having,” Risher said.

He encourages people to sign up as organ donors.

“Anybody can donate a kidney. I really want to get the word out about programs to match donors with those in need and the whole donor program in general. There are a lot of people who do want to help, but don’t know how.”

Risher, who is working to get on the kidney transplant list, suggests that people add the organ donor designation to their drivers’ licenses.

Meanwhile, here are some tips to keep kidneys healthy:

1. Have your kidneys checked regularly.

2. Work with your doctor to monitor your blood pressure.

3. If you have diabetes, control your blood sugar to keep it within normal range.

4. Avoid or limit over-the- counter anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen and Aleve.

5. Eat less salt – no more than 2,000 milligrams of sodium per day. That means paying attention

to salt hidden in processed food.

6. Exercise. Using your muscles can keep your kidneys healthy.

7. Don’t smoke. If you do smoke, quit.

For more infromation, visit the Northwest Kidney Centers’ website, www.nwkidney.org.