What happened/symptoms of when your kidneys crashed

Janine, if your kidneys failed totally, you would become severely ill immediately, feverish and sick.   With just 10 per cent function and feeling so ill and “unable to breathe very well” and on your second bout of flu, if it were me I would be getting myself to A&E asap, if only to avoid coming down with pneumonia let alone kidney failure.  I think you need to be expertly managed, and kept hydrated at the very least on a drip in hospital.  I do so hope that you can do everything to keep stable at the very low function remaining - flu and the like are the last thing those with very reduced kidney function need.  Lots of good luck wishes and do let us know how you get on.

Hi Janine,

When making the decision when to start dialysis, it's a combination of 1) remaining kidney function (yours is at 10%) and 2) how well / poorly you're feeling.  For me, my kidney function was down to 6% when I started on dialysis and the symptom that decided it for me was that I started getting a 'cold burning' feeling in my feet and legs.  I also started getting more nausea attacks.  Truth be told, I probably should have started on dialysis a year prior because there was no benefit to waiting until I was really feeling sick.  You are at 10% and I would recommend you start on dialysis now.  The sooner you start, the sooner you'll begin feeling better.

I hope that helps.

Hi Janine

Sorry to hear of your illness firstly. Mrs O is right you need to get expert help and try stay hydrated. I started dialysis at 9% egfr and that got to as low as 4%. Your nephrologist should have started to prepare you for dialysis and at the very best should have presented you with options on dialysis. If you're having haemo (which I had) you will need to have a fistula created and if your doc hasn't discussed with you then he should be discussing this now.

I hope you try to stay hydrated and wish you well on your journey through dialysis. As I've said before in many posts, I've been through the whole journey and had a transplant recently but to this day it remains a subject close to my heart. Give me a shout if I can help with anything else and all the best

Stephen

Janinec87,

My creatinine suddenly plummeted to 4.6 in January of 2017 with an eGFR of 8-9. I felt very poorly at that point. I really expected my nephrologist would say it was time for dialysis in my January 2017 appointment, but he didn't.

I still remember the difficulty I had focusing during that appointment and how poorly I felt. He was convinced I had low sodium and that had caused the sudden plummet in my creatinine. He took me off the diuretic he had had me taking. He also had me eat 3500 mg of sodium daily. (I couldn't believe the sodium he wanted me to eat--my food tasted way too salty. But I did what he said.)

He was clearly expecting my creatinine to rebound back to 2.0 but it didn't.  It did improve to 3.8 moving my eGFR to 12. I was definitely feeling better. However, my nephrologist said he thought a creatinine of 3.8 was my new baseline.

I decided it was time to request a referral out for a consult. (My nephrologist had been very perplexed by my case since taking it on in March of 2013. I wanted some answers, even if it was bad news.)

I was referred out to a university nephrologist. Four months later, August 16, 2017, I saw the university nephrologist. My blood pressure had been running very low consistently until I had started eating 3500 mg I'df sodium. It had elevated with the extra sodium so my regular nephrologist had put me on a blood pressure medication. When I saw the university nephrologist my blood pressure would suddenly plummet (dropping 25-35 points) when I would stand up. It did that in the university nephrologist's office. He and his nurse were clearly very concerned. He pulled me off the blood pressure medication and told me my renal function would improve when my blood pressure elevated.

My blood pressure elevated over the next week. It stayed in very good range for several months. I couldn't believe how much better I felt. My Nov and Dec 2017 renal panels showed a very modest improvement with my creatinine coming in at 3.2 and 3.19, respectively. That gave me an eGFR of 15, the bottom of Stage IV.

I also had two kidney infections during that time and a bad sinus/chest cold. I finally got past everything right after the new year. I was definitely feeling much better. I had been able to exercise code daily since late August of 2017 so I was regaining my strength.

My January renal panel came in with creatinine of 2.7 and eGFR of 18. This was nearly a 2.0 improvement in creatinine since my renal function plummeted the year before. I had expected a positive appointment with my nephrologist. Instead he said there had been no improvement, etc. Of course, this renal panel improvement seems pretty clearly to be due to the treatment change made by the university nephrologist rather than my regular nephrologist. So that may be the problem.

Regardless, my blood pressure is now quite variable and is sometimes quite elevated. I don't want my regular nephrologist to try to address that because he was not able to do so effectively for four years.

So, I am going back to the university nephrologist this week on Wednesday, Feb 7, 2018. I am hoping he will take my case full time. I am also hoping to hear that he does consider this to be an actual improvement in my renal function. And finally, I'm hoping he will prove to be a nephrologist I can trust to help me know when it is time for dialysis. In short, I would like to shift to him for all my renal care.

I really just need information that is definitive and makes sense with regard to my kidneys, even if it is bad news.

I know, a long saga from me on this post. But your situation seems to be at least a little like mine so I thought I'd share a little more.

Marj