Stage 3 Kidney Disease and Diet: What can I eat?

@ausie You are still very new to your diagnoses and treatments. Please try to follow your doctor's advice and not worry too much. What I have found is that I need to watch my trending more than each individual test. According to your numbers, your egfr is trending down, which is good; while your creatinine is trending up, which is not so good. The good thing about your creatinine is that (for me) normal is 1 and you are still under 1.5. My creatinine, for example, trends between 1.75 and 2.30. Fluids affect my creatinine strongly. My daily fluid intake goal is 80 ounces or more. If I do not get my 80 ounces in for several days, or have diarrhea during that time, my creatinine will be higher.
Please remember that your have also changed your diet and may be eating foods with less fluid in them. A few comments about diet. I do not eat berries because my kidney damage is caused by oxalates and berries have a great deal of oxalates in them. If oxalates are not your problem, berries are a very good food choice for you. I do not eat the green leafies, raw vegetables, pineapple and apples because of the high amount of fiber they contain. I am on the low fiber diet because of gastric issues; again, may not be one of your issues. I do like celery and onions sautéed and often add them (as well as minced carrots) to recipes for flavor.
Please remember how new this all is for you. I see that you are taking this seriously and doing your best, trust that over time you will work into your new life plan with a few tweaks along the way to get to your best self. Blessings on your journey.

@ausie, Welcome to Mayo Connect. You are among friends / patients from many backgrounds and experiences. We are all patients, and many of us have had similar experiences as you are having. We are here to support you and learn with you. You are not alone!
You have not made any mistakes, and your entry is a good one.

If you want more information about Connect -
Pages>About Connect: Who, What & Why>Tips for Participating in an Online Community
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/3rd-stage-kidney-disease/
Again, Welcome.

@ausie You are still very new to your diagnoses and treatments. Please try to follow your doctor's advice and not worry too much. What I have found is that I need to watch my trending more than each individual test. According to your numbers, your egfr is trending down, which is good; while your creatinine is trending up, which is not so good. The good thing about your creatinine is that (for me) normal is 1 and you are still under 1.5. My creatinine, for example, trends between 1.75 and 2.30. Fluids affect my creatinine strongly. My daily fluid intake goal is 80 ounces or more. If I do not get my 80 ounces in for several days, or have diarrhea during that time, my creatinine will be higher.
Please remember that your have also changed your diet and may be eating foods with less fluid in them. A few comments about diet. I do not eat berries because my kidney damage is caused by oxalates and berries have a great deal of oxalates in them. If oxalates are not your problem, berries are a very good food choice for you. I do not eat the green leafies, raw vegetables, pineapple and apples because of the high amount of fiber they contain. I am on the low fiber diet because of gastric issues; again, may not be one of your issues. I do like celery and onions sautéed and often add them (as well as minced carrots) to recipes for flavor.
Please remember how new this all is for you. I see that you are taking this seriously and doing your best, trust that over time you will work into your new life plan with a few tweaks along the way to get to your best self. Blessings on your journey.

@aussie I can relate to your concern about your Dr.’s response to your kidney lab numbers. I am a 63 year old with Diabetes and stage 4 CKD. (I had a pancreas transplant in 2005 to try to avoid/prevent diabetic complications like blindness & kidney failure). Over the past 4 years my GFR & creatinine have bounced around but seem to be gradually worsening. My Dr. has told me at most of my appointments that they are stable. It occurred to me that he probably has patients in way worse shape than me. I told him that my condition may not seem all that bad to him but I am trusting him to help me stay as well as I can for as long as I can. We’ve developed a good working relationship. He knows my feelings about dialysis, transplant and even my spiritual beliefs about my Christian faith. I told him I view him as a gift from God to help take care of me since I have put my life in God’s hands. I also asked him if he had a kidney to donate to me! He said most of his patients want that! 😂

@ausie Welcome to Mayo Connect! You no doubt will read several stories from different patients, and it might make you wonder if we are even talking about the same dis-ease. Everyone is different, and how we respond/work with kidney issues is tied in to the rest of our health concerns. For example, I am in Stage 3b, with an eGFR about 32, but I also have underlying co-morbidities like fibromyalgia, lupus, and multiple myeloma. Your labwork may show variances due to how you are feeling at the time to of blood draw, how your hydration level is, even time of day. Doctors have a tendency to look at "trends" in your results, not necessarily each set of tests as their own product, if that makes sense.

@cehunt57 had a very good way of reminding a medical professional that while you might be one of several patients with the same condition, in his practice, you are still an individual, and you are concerned. If you can get a consultation with a renal dietician, that would be great. There are also some websites like davita.com and rsnhope.org that offer a lot of information and recipes.

If I was in your shoes, I would have a frank discussion with your dr next time, and let him know you and he are on the same team, but you would like clear information in order to be as good a patient as he is a doctor! Face it, we gotta stroke their egos every so often!

We're here for you!
Ginger

@ausie You are still very new to your diagnoses and treatments. Please try to follow your doctor's advice and not worry too much. What I have found is that I need to watch my trending more than each individual test. According to your numbers, your egfr is trending down, which is good; while your creatinine is trending up, which is not so good. The good thing about your creatinine is that (for me) normal is 1 and you are still under 1.5. My creatinine, for example, trends between 1.75 and 2.30. Fluids affect my creatinine strongly. My daily fluid intake goal is 80 ounces or more. If I do not get my 80 ounces in for several days, or have diarrhea during that time, my creatinine will be higher.
Please remember that your have also changed your diet and may be eating foods with less fluid in them. A few comments about diet. I do not eat berries because my kidney damage is caused by oxalates and berries have a great deal of oxalates in them. If oxalates are not your problem, berries are a very good food choice for you. I do not eat the green leafies, raw vegetables, pineapple and apples because of the high amount of fiber they contain. I am on the low fiber diet because of gastric issues; again, may not be one of your issues. I do like celery and onions sautéed and often add them (as well as minced carrots) to recipes for flavor.
Please remember how new this all is for you. I see that you are taking this seriously and doing your best, trust that over time you will work into your new life plan with a few tweaks along the way to get to your best self. Blessings on your journey.

@ausie You are still very new to your diagnoses and treatments. Please try to follow your doctor's advice and not worry too much. What I have found is that I need to watch my trending more than each individual test. According to your numbers, your egfr is trending down, which is good; while your creatinine is trending up, which is not so good. The good thing about your creatinine is that (for me) normal is 1 and you are still under 1.5. My creatinine, for example, trends between 1.75 and 2.30. Fluids affect my creatinine strongly. My daily fluid intake goal is 80 ounces or more. If I do not get my 80 ounces in for several days, or have diarrhea during that time, my creatinine will be higher.
Please remember that your have also changed your diet and may be eating foods with less fluid in them. A few comments about diet. I do not eat berries because my kidney damage is caused by oxalates and berries have a great deal of oxalates in them. If oxalates are not your problem, berries are a very good food choice for you. I do not eat the green leafies, raw vegetables, pineapple and apples because of the high amount of fiber they contain. I am on the low fiber diet because of gastric issues; again, may not be one of your issues. I do like celery and onions sautéed and often add them (as well as minced carrots) to recipes for flavor.
Please remember how new this all is for you. I see that you are taking this seriously and doing your best, trust that over time you will work into your new life plan with a few tweaks along the way to get to your best self. Blessings on your journey.

Thank you so much for your kind reply. I am really glad to have found connect, quite by accident, and I feel so much better to be with friends who understand what this is all about. I am very behind with my replies. And I was a bit under the weather the last two days.
Even had the thermometer out taking my temp with Covid-19 beingin the back of my head, but I am feeling better now. Blessings to you.

@2011panc I was told that generally, an eGFR trending downwards along with other values changing, means a further decline in kidney function. Curious how our two sources came to those different conclusions!
Ginger

Thank you for your kind words. I see that I have a lot to learn about CKD and I'm glad to be here and learning from friends so much that I'm taking notes to help as I try to figure this out. My creatinine went to 1.70 with my 3/24 lab. Seeing that you are aware of your trend tells me charting my pertinent numbers will be helpful. I hope you don't mind my asking, how did your kidney damage being caused by oxalates come to light? My cause right now is unknown, my doctor said, but I'm not sure why. But that's definitely a question for him. And because I showed concern at my virtual visit last week, he's having me follow up with lab in a month. So I'll start to track my numbers. Thanks again and blessings to you.