Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD): How do I stop progression?

I relate to you. I was diagnosed with 3a CKD the end of June this year. Because of Covid, the classes were all online. At the end, I just broke down. “I wanted NO dialysis! That’s NOT living.” I guess my takeaway from your post is that I should discuss it with my family. In the meantime, I’ll continue with diet and exercise in an effort to stop progression.
Thank you for your post.

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.

I have increased water intake and tried to watch my diet. My reading was the same as last, so I seem to be maintaining.

@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.

@fiesty76 Your observation about failure/reluctance of Dr's to address declining kidney function is a sad statement of our times. I also experienced what you and many others did. I was first told at Stage 2, sliding in to Stage 3. Immediately I started research trying to figure the cause of the disease, and putting myself on a kidney-friendly diet. Dr's told me there was no need to do that, but I believe early intervention, to lessen the strain on them, kept my eGFR slowing it's decline. In 2015 we found the cause of the kidney issue, an ultra-rare disease [that was re-confirmed last Oct].

Because kidney disease can often be insidious, and can quietly sneak in to our lives, it behooves us all to watch our health. So glad this group openly shares techniques, and advocates to help each other!
Ginger

Agree! My nephrologist continues to tell me that my remaining Stage 3(b) kidney does not require any changes in diet, etc. When would diet at least come into play - Stage 4, Stage 5?

@trishanna Be your own advocate! As @gladiator14 told us, a change in diet helped the numbers in his case. Also @kamama94 and @fiesty76 have told us their changes helped. Even little changes can make a difference. I cut out bananas, oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, avocados, almost all red meat. I drink healthy, limiting dairy to 4 ounces a day [cottage cheese or yoghurt]. Decreasing my stress levels where/how I can.

Please think about changing up your diet now. You can go to Davita's website for pointers https://www.davita.com/diet-nutrition or Renal Support Network https://www.rsnhope.org/renal-recipes-kidney-friendly/ or our own @kamama94 recipe collection in the Stage 3 group discussion in the kidney and bladder group https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/3rd-stage-kidney-disease/ [look for her PDF attachment under August 3, 2020 post.

I look forward to hearing from you, hearing your successes!
Ginger

So kind of you to respond. All of you have helped so much, and I appreciate that, but I'm dumbfounded at the attitude of my nephrologist. Does he figure I've one foot on a banana peel, do you suppose? Anyhow, I've just received word he's leaving our community so it will be interesting to see what his replacement says! Concerned no word from Kamama - hope all is well.

Unfortunately I hear this more and more frequently from others and not just with CKD but other issues as well as far as not getting any guidance from their doctors . We all must be our own advocates and learn to understand what we are dealing with. But it is important to utilize reputable sites and references as I have seen some very questionable information on the internet.

So well said! @gladiator14. Thank you for this response.