HI Ginger, you seem to be well informed about all this kidney stuff so I was wondering if you could help me out? I had been holding steady at a GFR of around 60, (which I am kind of embarrassed to be complaining about), so I was never told that my kidney function was nearing Stage 3 CKD. Until it hit 59 and then all of a sudden "you have kidney disease". What? 60 is normal but 59 puts me at Stage 3? Anyway, I had a UTI at the time, when they mentioned my declining kidney function and was put on Bactrim. A recheck showed that while on Bactrim (and during the UTI) my GFR dropped 5 more points to 54. I was so panicked. Well, they added a new BP med (amlodipine) and my next two GFR's were miraculously improved at 64 and 73 (on 10/11). At the point, with a GFR of 73, my nephrologist felt it was okay to restart a tricyclic anti-depressant that had been very helpful in the past, but has some caution with kidney disease. I was supposed to start it today. I got a metabolic panel yesterday and my GFR was back down to 60. Now I don't know what to do about restarting the antidepressant and also wondering why I seemed to be improving and now declining again? I feel depressed because I fear further decline should I restart the meds. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thank you.