Kidney Disease

Uremia

This is a build up of nitrogenous waste products in the blood including urea.

Symptoms are loss of appetite, lethargy, fatigue, nausea, cold, bone pain, itching, shortness of breath and seizures, with late symptoms being decreased mental acuity and coma.

Can be diagnosed when Kidney function is below 50%.

GFR - Glomerular filtration rate.

The rate of filtered fluid through the Kidney .

GFR at the different stages of the disease

Normal kidney function – GFR above 90mL/min/1.73m² and no proteinuria.

1) CKD1 – GFR above 90mL/min/1.73m² with evidence of kidney damage

2) CKD2 (Mild) – GFR of 60 to 89 mL/min/1.73m² with evidence of kidney damage

3) CKD3 (Moderate) – GFR of 30 to 59 mL/min/1.73m²

4) CKD4 (Severe) – GFR of 15 to 29 mL/min/1.73m²

5) CKD5 Kidney failure - GFR less than 15 mL/min/1.73m² Some people add CKD5D for those stage 5 patients requiring dialysis; many patients in CKD5 are not yet on dialysis.

Creatinine

This is a by product from muscle tissue that is produced in a steady flow. The kidneys job is the keep the creatinine level stable by filtering out excesses.

Creatinine levels in the blood are used to diagnoses early stage kidney failure.

End stage Bun - to - creatineine ratio is used to monitor fidney failure more accurately at later stages of the disease.

Kidneys on the Mind

To most people they are served with steak, in the form of a delicious crusty pie. To me they are different, they are a part of me that has failed to work normally and I therefore am very aware of them every day now.

The medical people say a human kidney is the approximate size of your hand. So it is quite a large organ with the capacity to work in all normal life's condition including mild poisoning. Even with 85% damage, most people will have no symptoms.

Unfortunately my kidneys began to show signs of disease in October 2010 when I was tested when applying for a drugs trial.

Kidney disease or CKD is a progressive chronic illness that is categorized into 5 stages with stage 5 being the last stage before complete failure.

Stage 1-3 are the best stages to be diagnosed because at this level you can change your diet to slow or stop the progress of the disease. Most people get diagnosed at stage 4 like I was.

At stage 4 your kidney is under great stain and is working much harder so the kidney is in steady decline taking normally two year before failure, or sometimes sadly less as in my case.

The Kidney post I write now is at stage 5, a bit late to start blogging, but I felt it needed to be written. Even with getting close to 10% function I feel quite well, but I expect to feel unwell in the near future.

For many people the only treatment is going on dialysis, a medical replacement of the kidney. In my case I am one of the lucky ones who is basically youngish and healthy enough to be able to have a kidney transplant.

This is the operation looking from the lower back area.

This is the result, a third kidney is placed in the front tummy area.

If my brother is a suitable donor then I hope to have a live kidney transplant from him next year, the signs are all positive so far.

A live kidney is better than a dead kidney for two main reasons, one you can set a fixed date for the operation, in my case a Wednesday. The other reason is the dead kidney will take up to 5 days to recover and begin to work, during this time dialysis may be needed. My hope is to avoid all dialysis which saves a lot of money and effort.

I hope to do some more posting about the operation and post the final scars of my brother and mine also.

Here is one I found on the web.