Two years after announcing his renal kidney failure diagnosis, ex-NBA star Nate Robinson has admitted he ‘doesn’t have long to live’ if he can’t find a replacement.
Robinson, an 11-year NBA vet who played for the likes of the Knicks, Celtics and Bulls, has spent the last four years searching for a kidney – and shared he’d only survive a ‘week or two’ without a dialysis machine.
‘I know that I don’t have long if I can’t get a kidney,’ Robinson exclusively told Mail Sport. ‘I know I’m not going to have long to live. So I just want to make the best of it as much as I can.
He continued, ‘Some people’s body reject dialysis. And thank God that mine accepts it and I can live… if I didn’t go to dialysis, I wouldn’t live probably longer than a week or two. So it’s serious, can’t miss a day. I go in for four hours, three days a week, four hours a day. And they clean my blood to get my toxins out. And they help me out a lot because that’s how I’m living.’
Robinson, who spoke on behalf of Bet365, shared that he deals with frequent, painful vomiting as part of his disease, which often leaves him hospitalized for a day or two.
It’s no surprise, then, that he described his current situation as a ‘rollercoaster,’ but but he’s trying to staying positive nonetheless.
‘The [dialysis] machine has been helping my longevity and my life right now,’ he said. ‘So I’m just enjoying the times where I do feel healthy. I try to get out there with my kids, see my family and play basketball, do the things that I love.
‘And I still try to do all the things that I can to stay and feel normal as I can, stay as human as I can.’
Aside from relying on dialysis, Robinson has also taken matters into his own hands when it comes to his diet.
‘It’s a whole bunch you got to watch,’ he said. You got to have measurements of everything that you eat and drink. You can’t have too much, you can have too [little].
‘I changed my diet, just try to eat better, staying away from a lot of processed foods, just trying to eat fruits and grilled food, grilled chicken and grilled fish, just healthier stuff, that’s the way I can survive and stay alive as long as I can.’
The three-time Dunk Contest champion, who last played in 2015, previously told the ‘Playmaker’ podcast how he learned of the health problems he’d eventually face.
The diminutive point guard was on the Knicks in 2006 when he was informed that his high blood pressure had damaged his kidneys – and that’d he’d likely face kidney failure later in his life.
Still, Robinson went on to have a memorable NBA career – featuring 6,807 points, and a record three wins in the Dunk Contest.
Now, he counts himself as fortunate just to be alive.
‘I don’t take it for granted,’ he said. I just stay as humble as I can, and I just thank God for every opportunity… every day is a blessing to be alive and to be able to do what I do every day.
‘Because some people, they go in for kidneys, go into the hospital, and they never come out.’
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