Dear Tina,
I am sorry for the disappointing news. It must be very hard on you both. But I imagine that it has meant a lot to your mom that you were so willing to help.
So, use the new information well and do your best to take good care of yourself. You've got the information and the tools now to really be able to do a lot to help prevent future problems.
If you might be interested in helping out in a more indirect way, the National Kidney Foundation has a lot of volunteer opportunities. They do a lot of work at educating the public about kidney disease (both how to help prevent it and how to spot its first symptoms), encouraging people to sign their after-death donation cards and also to be aware of the possibility of living donation, fund-raising for further research, etc. They set up public information tables here and there, run kidney disease screening clinics, hold "kidney walks", etc. So, you can still help a lot of people indirectly. Info at
www.kidney.org So can also see if you can donate blood regularly or not, and also be sure to keep your after-death donation permission up-to-date. Even persons unable for health reasons to become living donors still can have many organs and tissues that can benefit others after death.
Thanks so much for sharing your story.
Fr. Pat