Reason for GFR level to fluctuate from 20 to 57?

@fromthehill Personally, I take it as a challenge to keep myself healthy. Healthy eating, mindfulness for creating an emotionally and mentally healthy life, too! Yep, that word got used three times!

I am a creative person, doing a lot of writing and different crafts. So, using those mediums help me deal with the challenges. It's okay to be thinking how to move forward given our own individual circumstances. What could be crippling is to focus only on that. Friends and families often do not understand the seriousness of our health situation, so we can use that as a platform to educate them.

Taking care of ourselves will let us focus on what else we want to accomplish. For me, and perhaps for others, watching my diet, my stress levels, moderate exercise, being medication compliant is part of the big picture. Why take away part of that because we don't want to deal with it? Isn't that like a tire with a flat spot?
Ginger

Thank you for the encouragement and helping me thru' a wobble of thinking

Thank you Ginger...wise words and encouraging advice...very true words.

My eGFR has had enormous swings.

Jan 19, 2023 ….. 59
May 10, 2024 ….. 56
Oct 14, 2024 ….. 77
Feb 28, 2025 ….. 86
June 19, 2025 ….. 63
July 18, 2025 ….. 63
Sept 25, 2025 ….. 66
January 20, 2026 ….. 53

The last eGFR of 53 , after a eGFR less then one year earlier of 86 has me very concerned and very confused.

I had my blood drawn today and hope that my eGFR is the same or increases, but with these huge swings I don’t know how much trust to even put in my personal eGFR. Prayers for all.

Thanks @gingerw , as always, for your compassion and great advice!

@faithfully those #’s do not look like “enormous swings” to me. Even if they are a bit swingy, they are at the higher end of good. Many folks don’t even get referred to nephrology until eGFR is less than 40. In 2016 when I first got serious about CKD my eGFR was bouncing between 14 - 42. I had a local (Twin Cities, MN metro area) nephrologist and got a Mayo (Rochester, MN) nephrologist too. I had pre-transplant kidney evaluations done; was approved/accepted and even listed (inactive) at Mayo transplant center. I learned about hydration, renal diet, medications effecting kidney conditions, dialysis, transplants and started looking for a living kidney donor. That was in 2016. In the decade following I have settled into an eGFR in the low 30’s. Yesterday I had a virtual meeting with my Mayo nephrologist. She recommended delisting on the UNOS transplant list because I have been in too good a shape for too long a time. Today my transplant coordinator called to confirm that this is the plan. It feels funny to be “delisted” (like demoted) but in reality it is a good thing. Forgive me if I have a hard time sympathizing about your 53 - 86 eGFR’s when my last one was 34!

@cehunt57 congratulations on being “delisted”. Great news, truly!

I am never looking for sympathy; I am merely sharing my path with CKD. And, to me, a drop of 33 points in my eGFR in less then 12 months is defined as “HUGE”. We all define things differently. Another 33 point drop, and next year I would be at 20 eGFR.

Perhaps, a little more information from my original post may shed light on my concerns.

“Hello all. In June, 2014, I passed a stone (4mm) and had the extreme pain, vomiting. The ER doctor said my kidney was “a stone factory”. 11 years passed. No problems until July, 2024, when I passed a second very large stone, 8 mm. Huge. Zero pain. I went to a urologist and they did a CAT scan and discovered that I had a 14 mm stone in my left ureter and bladder junction. That same CAT scan also discovered my left kidney was “severely atrophied”. Prior to this, no one had ever mentioned anything different about my kidneys. The doctors say that they have no idea why one kidney atrophied so badly or when it did. Then, I was told to “assume I am a solitary one kidney person” In August, 2024, I had the 14 mm stone surgically removed via laser. My right kidney (the good one) had three “non obstructing” stones in it, 8mm, 6mm, and 3mm. A CAT scan done in April 2025 showed 5 “non obstructing” stones in the right kidney (the good one), 6mm, 5 mm, another 5 mm, 3mm and another 3mm. Where the 8 mm went from July, 2024, I don’t know.
Naturally, I was and am scared .. . .”

Why ?

As a constant “stone former”, If my solitary “good” kidney becomes obstructed, pressure will build up, and I will have Acute Kidney Injury, and my eGFR will drastically plummet, maybe forever. Also, no one has ever been able to explain the sudden atrophy that occurred sometime in the past 11 years. Will it occur on my remaining “good” kidney? What effect will that have on my total kidney function, my eGFR?

These are “what ifs”, but all of life, every single day is really ultimately a series of “what ifs” that actually occur and therefore become our reality, our lives, right?

Prayers for you and all.