Turner died Wednesday after a long illness. She was 83.
Tina Turner got candid about her health, just two months before her death.
In a March 9 post shared on her Instagram page, Turner said she regretted not taking care of her kidneys sooner, telling her followers that she put herself in "great danger" by not receiving medical care for her high blood pressure.
"Today is International World Kidney Day. Why is it important? Because kidneys fail without pain. And that's why I'm telling you today: Show your kidneys love! They deserve it. My kidneys are victims of my not realising that my high blood pressure should have been treated with conventional medicine," Turner shared in honor of International World Kidney Day March 9. "I have put myself in great danger by refusing to face the reality that I need daily, lifelong therapy with medication. For far too long I believed that my body was an untouchable and indestructible bastion."
Turner then directed fans to a website where they could learn more about her story, one that involved dialysis, and eventually an organ donation from her husband Erwin Bach to save her life.
"I have been suffering from hypertension for a long time, got diagnosed in 1978, but didn’t care much about it. I can’t remember ever getting an explanation about what high blood pressure means or how it affects the body. I considered high blood pressure my normal. Hence, I didn’t really try to control it," Turner wrote on the Show Your Kidneys Love website. "In 1985 a doctor gave me a prescription for pills of which I was supposed to take one a day, and that was it. I didn’t give it any more thought."
She continued, detailing more health struggles over the years, "After suffering a stroke in 2009 because of my poorly controlled hypertension I struggled to get back up on my feet. This is when I first learned that my kidneys didn’t work that well anymore. They had already lost thirty-five percent of their function."
With the help of doctors, Turner continued taking prescription medication for her hypertension. Not a fan of the medication and the way it made her feel, the "Proud Mary" singer turned to a homeopathic doctor in France, at the advice of a friend. But after a routine checkup, she learned that getting off the prescription medication was causing her more harm than good, and was slowly but surely killing my kidneys.
"I never would have replaced my medication by the homeopathic alternatives if I had had an idea how much was at stake for me," she wrote. "Thanks to my naivety I had ended up at the point where it was about life or death. At first, I may not have noticed any signs of sickness, but some of the symptoms that I blamed on the medication, like my fatigue, nausea or occasional irritability, were really signs of my kidney disease in its final stage....the doctors made it very clear that the consequences of my decision were irreversible. My kidney function had reached its all-time low."
It was then that Turner was forced to begin dialysis, a "depressing" process that left her connected to a machine for hours. After nine months of treatment and continued education on the "silent" killer that is chronic kidney failure, Turner's husband stepped in and offered to donate one of his kidneys to her.
"The months after the transplantation were marked by a never-ending up and down. From time to time my body tried to reject the donor kidney as it frequently happens after a transplantation," Turner said of the complex procedure. "Every so often this required more hospital admissions. I kept feeling nauseous and dizzy, forgot things, and was scared a lot."
What's more, is that in March, Turner said the problems from her kidney transplant were "not quite resolved," informing readers that she continued to be on multiple prescriptions and was following her doctors' orders "meticulously" in hopes of healing and recovery.
While her kidney troubles could have been to blame for Turner's death, her rep only confirmed that the rock icon died after a battle with a long illness Wednesday. An exact cause of death for the 83-year-old is not yet known.
In addition to her rep, Turner's verified Instagram account also posted a statement following the performer's passing, confirming the tragic news.
"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner. With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow," the statement read. "Today we say goodbye to a dear friend who leaves us all her greatest work: her music. All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family. Tina, we will miss you dearly."
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