I'm scared.

[Snuckles]

I am 47 female, and my GFR is 67. My creatine is 0.9 I have perfect blood pressure I am a little over weight. But now I am scared I'm going to die from this. The Dr never told me about my gift I seen it on my labs and now am freaking out. I intake of fluids is poor, I'm just so busy I don't drink much. I was sick when they did the lab work. I had vomited that morning. I'm just scared to death now. Daph.

[jillab]

Hello, first thing I will say is to stop worrying, I am Jill B , I am 76 years old , and would love to have a Gfr of 67 mine is 26 at the moment. To put it in straighter in your mind and hopefully ease your worrying a bit this is what the numbers stand for, above 90 is classed as normal, 60 to90 is mild kidney disease, 30 to 60 moderately severe , 15 to 30 Severe, below 5 means very severe. so as you are 67 that is classed as mild. Now will be the time to start taking care of what you eat, usually the first thing you are told is to stop salt as much as possible, and eat sensibly. Really everything is different for each person so the best person to advice you is a specialist, I see a nephrologist every 6 months to keep a check on me to, but so far I have no special diet just told to eat sensibly, in fact I have gained more idea from another group I am on which as you are female you could join if interested it is a closed group so you do have to apply to join but I have learnt so much from the ladies on there. It is called Women's Renal Failure Support Group. I hope this has eased your worries a little, good luck.

[Snuckles in reply to jillab]

Hello, thank you for replyng. The Dr never told me my GFR was 67 I seen it on my labs, they said my labs looked fine. Why wouldn't they see this? Back in 2017 my GFR was 78, these are GFR non african American. Estimated GFR African American is 81. Why do they have different numbers? I'm not African American and how would the test know that? I'm so confused why there are two numbers.

[jillab in reply to Snuckles]

Hi, my own Dr.s have never mentioned kidney disease to me either, in fact I have to keep reminding them, if I go for another reason I have to check that I am safe to take any medicine etc, with kidney disease, to be honest I have no trust in them at all anymore, for many , and I mean a lot of years I was told I had Irritable Bowel Symptom, eventually I was in a lot of pain and said I was sure it wasn't IBS and the Dr. said I'll prove it to you and I was sent for a test, (to cut a long story short ) further tests found my left kidney wasn't showing up on the screen . further tests led to me being admitted and the left kidney removed, well what was left of it , and the right kidney was down to 12% because the left one was so diseased it affected the right one, the surgeon said I would only have lived a few more days, if it hadn't been removed . thankfully the right one has now picked up a bit to 26% so I'm surviving, and as for the normal Drs.they have still never mentioned it. Don't go and get frightened with me telling you that, nothing like that will happen to you, this began many years ago with me. It might be an idea for you to ask your Dr. if you could have an appointment to speak with a kidney specialist to put your mind at rest and to get proper information, don't go looking at Dr. Google it won't help you. Best wishes.

[WYOAnne in reply to Snuckles]

Please remember that a GFR of 67 is still considered in the normal range. Most labs consider anything above 60 to be normal.

Your creatinine was fantastic, at 0.9. Normal creatinine labs are usually 0.5 - 1.2. So you are right on!!

When you are dehydrated, it can really effect your labs, especially your eGFR. You did say that you were vomiting that morning. Even if I have a day where I don't drink enough water and then I have labs done - my GFR, BUN and creatinine will be affected.

So, stop worrying. For peace of mind, ask your doctor to have your labs repeated. Just make sure you start drinking more water everyday. CKD is not diagnosed from one test. The diagnose comes from multiple blood and urine tests over the course of several months.

eGFR is an estimate of your filtration rate of your kidneys. They determine what is normal for you based on age, sex, race, creatinine. That is why it is different for an African American vs a non-African American.

Relax...

[Julesboz]

Hi there, please don’t panic! A GFR above 60 without any other signs of kidney damage is considered normal and wouldn’t be classed as kidney disease, which is probably why your doctor hasn’t said anything. I would definitely book an appointment with your doctor and have a chat to reassure yourself. Even if you did have very mild kidney problems, it’s not the end of the world. I’m 53 and have a GFR in the high 50s. I’ve been at stage 3 kidney disease for over 10 years now and I’ve managed to improved my kidney function through simple diet changes (reduce salt, lots of water, limit processed food, lots of whole natural foods, no fizzy drinks, and I’ve got food intolerances so I don’t do gluten and dairy). If you have any more questions, there are lots of people on this group who will be able to reassure you.

[lowraind]

All good advice in the replies, but if you have so little faith in your doctors, it would behoove you to look for another doctor, one with whom you can relate.

[fredmarks]

I would also say do not worry. If you have 67 and there are no other reason/signs for a doctor to suspect kidney disease (example, high protein in your urine), then the 67 is considered a normal result.

As for why you were given 2 results. The answer is that for African Americans, the eGRF is calculated a differently (there is a multiplication factor added). This is just how it is done, to account for genetic differences (so to speak).

The lab does not know what race you are, so they provide you the 2 results (for you to pick the one that applies to you) so to speak

[Dangermom13]

If that gfr is correct, not off due to dehydration, it's still above the mark for stage 2. The kidney diet and no use of NSAIDS along with hydration and moderate exercise should improve the number.

[Cruze44]

I had a eGFR if 64 at the age of 49. I’ve consulted three doctors including one from the Cleveland Clinic. They have all told me that I do not in any way shape or form have any kidney disease whatsoever. They also said I do not have any greater chance of developing CKD then someone with eGFR of 100. They were all VERY VERY emphatic about this. In fact, one said that in his 30 years in practice about 30% of his patients (100’s of people) have eGFRs below 70 and not a single one has ever advanced to kidney disease.

Plus eGFR around 60 are notoriously inaccurate and tend to underestimate kidney function. A look back at my blood work over the years seems to confirm this. At the age of 42 my eGFR was 67. Then for several years after that it was well over a 100. Then dipped back into the 60’s for a few years. Then it went back up. Most recently my eGFR was 64. I went back three months later and retested. It’s back to 80. So as you see it can change drastically. I certainly wouldn’t worry. I’d say your just fine.

[Snuckles in reply to Cruze44]

I admit my intake was very poor, I was on nursing school so busy and never thought about drinking enough even thouh I know one should but being so busy I just never thought about it and I'm just scared I hurt my kidneys from that.