LARGO, Fla. — It has been a stressful and busy recovery for Bay area residents after back-to-back hurricanes.

But for City of Largo Public Works employee Leron Roberts, it has been more difficult to handle. Still, Roberts is looking forward to next year.

And he is not letting a medical condition diminish a happier New Year.

"I'm one of those people who wants to go out and do something,” said Leron Roberts. “You know if there's a problem, I want to go out and fix it."

Bay area residents have seen what Roberts calls the “claw truck” more often since the hurricanes.

It is the big solid waste truck with a crane attached to pick up large debris.

Roberts has seen a lot too.

“You get to pick another pile of drywall and furniture and appliances,” said Roberts. “And then you drive another two feet at another house and pick more drywall, furniture, debris.”

Debris removal after the September and October storms is still happening in December.

These are long hard days for Largo Public Works.

Until recently, workers in that department were putting in 12-hour shifts, six days a week.

“It was actually a good distraction, because when you wake up every morning, you don’t focus on your situation,” said Roberts.

You can imagine, it is arduous work.

What you cannot see or imagine — Roberts is doing all this despite his situation which a doctor first told him about in 2019.

“They discovered that I had a rare genetic disease that was causing my kidneys to fail,” he said. “And at the time, a doctor told me it wasn’t a matter of if my kidneys would fail, but when my kidneys would fail.”

Roberts has been running the claw truck all this time and managing his condition which became a little more complicated a year-and-a-half ago.

“From 2023 to just about two weeks ago, I did home dialysis for nine hours a night, every night,” he said. “But unfortunately, my kidneys have failed to the point I can no longer do that.”

Just weeks ago, he was running the claw 12 hours a day, six days a week and going through nine hours of dialysis.

It is an ordeal too much to handle.

“Yeah, those are the struggles. I’m tired, my body aches,” he said. “My doctor only allows me to have 32 ounces of water a day. Because if I take too much, my body can’t handle it.”

He now does treatment at a dialysis center three days a week and picked up better news along the way.

“A couple of months ago, I finally got on the kidney donor list,” Roberts said.

With so much piling up in his life, you would think it is too much to take.

Not so.

“I feel pretty good today, I feel good today actually,” he said. “All you can do is control how you respond to life, and I try not to dwell on it, because it happens you get up you go on and you focus on the good things in life. Like I have a wife and four kids, and I try to focus on them and try to do as much while I’m still around.”

For now, he is picking up the piles while waiting for a new kidney.

“As long as I keep doing my treatments and my medications, yea,  I should be able to do my normal job, no limits, no restrictions.”