My father, age 61 has been diagnosed today with Stage 4 CKD with his eGFR at 24. He has been a patient of Type2 Diabetes and High Blood Pressure for past 15 years. He had his Gall Bladder removed due to stones about 19 years ago. Due to sleep issues he used to take sleeping pills at night which his nephrologist has now stopped. He maintains a good exercising schedule and practices strict diet control.
My query is to learn from experience of others with similar signs as to how long can kidney function be preserved to avoid dialysis. Or is it inevitable to stop progression to End stage CKD.
I want to be informed in advance of all the possibilities so that i am able to help my father lead a better quality of life.
Any help or advice on the subject shall be gratefully appreciated. Thanks.
Written by
Sk_S
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Its a hard disease to get your head around as everyone is very I individual.My story is that helps is....
I was diagnosed at 20years old with 20%Renal function so stage 4 and was told I should expect to need dialysis my 2009. So we are in 2018 and I'm still dialysis free and up until July 2018 my function was stable at 7.5% however a sudden decline to 4.5% me and I will be starting dialysis in the new year.
I truly believe I have slowed down my kidney disease which it turns out I had from birth but didn't know because of following a strict diet, keeping active and hydrated until you have to go on fluid restrictions. Medication tweaks may help too.
Cut sodium out of his diet, no processed foods, pre jarred foods or processed meats, don't add salt to your boiling water, there is so much hidden salt in foods so don't have anything in the red and limit Amber. I have nothing in either of these traffic light groups. I dont have dairy wither but thats because i am allergic to it bit reducing this can help too. Don't have dark soda. Lose weight if he needs too, stop smoking if he smokes and just a gentle walk can really help. Just follow a well balance diet.
Hopefully your dad can slow the progression of this disease.
I am no doctor and I would seek medical advise before changing his diet by requesting to see a renal dietician as everyone's disease is very different.
Thank you Charlene for sharing your experience. It gives me immense hope that my father would be able to stay off dialysis by strict diet control after going through your story. Also, I would like to wish you all the best for dialysis. I hope all goes fine.
Thanks again!
If you are in the USA I suggest you look at the davita.com website for a free 90-minute Kidney Smart class in your area. If you and your father are near each other you can both attend the same class. If you are too far away you both can attend a separate class. You'll be provided with lots of information on CKD and how to avoid progression to ESRD. There is no set timetable on going from one stage to another. Each individual must be proactive and take all necessary steps to slow down the progression of this chronic illness.
If he does get a referral to a Renal Dietitian have him bring along at least a years worth of results from previous blood and urine labs. I take all of my labs and list the labs on the left side of a spreadsheet. Across the top, I list the doctors who ordered the labs and the date. In each corresponding box, I put the lab results for each test. This allows me and anyone I show it to, to be able to quickly see at a glance any trends that could indicate a problem with excessive sodium, calcium, phosphates, potassium, or anything else.
Have him bring that to the RD so that a kidney-friendly meal plan designed especially for his results.
If there is any difficulty with understanding the labs, I recommend using labtestsonline.org for a simple explanation of each test.
Doctors reports are sometimes written in medical jargon. Download a simple, easy to read and understand medical dictionary to learn and understand the terms they use. This is really important as I've learned the medical words can be very scary. Twenty dollar words are reduced to simple terms most lay people will be able to understand.
If you are not in the USA then use the website kidneyschool.org/mods to find a series of modules to learn about CKD. This will allow him to ask appropriate questions and have some knowledge of the illness and the best practices for him to slow it down.
He can also use drugs.com to check out all of his medications and dosages to be certain that he is not taking anything that is counter-productive to CKD. He also shouldn't take any supplements without first consulting with his Care Team.
Speaking of his Care Team, putting together a good one is critical. It should include all of his physicians, a partner who will be helping him with anything that arises, his RD and any other medical professional. Each doctor should provide him with timely advice and accept his decision as to what his wishes are. Any doctor not willing to comply should be replaced.
One final thing about the Kidney-Smart class. The material provided will explain the various modalities available should dialysis be needed at some point in the future. There is a lot of research on all of these modalities to sift through once he gets past the initial stages of learning about CKD.
The DaVita website will also provide a wealth of recipes for folks with CKD and Diabetes. Not one of them should be taken at face value. I've had T2D and Hypertension for years and only found out about having CKD 18 months ago. When I consulted with an RD, and after we looked at my labs, I was able to look at those recipes and tailor them to meet my specific needs. I do that with all of them, based on things like my phosphorous level, potassium, calcium, and sodium levels. As previously mentioned, add no extra salt and be careful not to overindulge on special times (birthdays, holidays, etc.)
You and he will find many knowledgeable people here to share and obtain information from. Just remember there is no "one size fits all" solution. Best of luck.
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