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Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD): How do I stop progression?
Kidney & Bladder | Last Active: Oct 5, 2020 | Replies (58)Comment receiving replies
I was surprised with a diagnosis of Stage 3B CKD in June after years of having my internist tell me my GFR and Creatinine abnormalities were "just my normal". Luckily I was seen by a different provider that identified my issue. I was seen at the University of Iowa where I got the shocking news. I was able to get all of my labworks from the last 15 years and I had issues almost the whole time. I was angry my internist didn't send me to someone years ago but water over the dam. University of Iowa never made any recommendation for diet although with my internist I was put on a statin, blood pressure meds, and potassium citrate. I did my own research using PubMed and other sites for the latest articles and it seemed that I should be on a diet restriction of 1500mg per day of sodium and .8g protein per Kg of body weight which started at 65g per day. I charted everything I ate and and in one month my GFR improved from 37 on August 26 to 47 on September 26. My creatinine level dropped from 1.82 to 1.48 over the same time period. My weight which I had been trying to lose since June dropped 8 pounds in the last month. In June when diagnosed I figured the less body mass I had the less my kidneys would have to filter. I was 183 in June and 163.1 this morning. I am sharing my story as it was my way to stop the progression which in hindsight had been getting worse every blood test for years. I am not saying to do what I did as I have done this without any doctor supervision because no one would give me any. I have an appointment at Mayo on November 9 and I hope they agree with what I did. My internist was elated and asked my what I was doing at today's visit. Hopefully I continue to improve and I can get some answers about a large cyst that I have in one kidney and some large stones that I have in the other at that visit to see if they are impacting this issue. Wishing everyone the best.
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@gladiator14, Thank you for sharing your experience and the heartening news of your kidney function improvements. It is sad but the more I hear from the others, I think your years (and mine) of decreasing kidney function with no caution or intervention from our docs are sadly more the norm than the exception.
Until my ckd stage 3 diagnosis, I'd never questioned a doc nor paid attention to lab results. So much of what I've learned and benefited from these past two yrs since my ckd diagnosis has been through my individual effort to learn and research a path to better kidney health. Like you, the steps I've taken have improved my kidney scores but I wish that more physicians would alert patients to changes that could be addressed much earlier.
Hope you'll let us know what you learn from your doc regarding the large cyst and stones and what you can do for treatment.