Hello. I'm a 58 year old woman diagnosed with CKD about 5 years ago. During the last few years I stayed pretty much at stage 3. I had a great nephrologist, then I moved to another state. Admittedly the move hasn't been great and I have gained 7 lbs! But most concerning is my GFR, since June, has dropped from 35 to 27. I get it checked monthly. I'm not diabetic. They believe my kidneys were damaged from chemo that I had in 2012 for breast cancer. I also have high blood pressure. Recently it started getting high again so not only am I on 3 BP meds, but the doc started me on water pills. That has seemed to lower my BP, but my nephrologist back home told me not to take water pills as my kidneys reacted badly to them ( I used to take them years ago). I'm so lost. I eat a low sodium diet, exercise daily at the gym...all to no avail. Is there any hope of raising my GFR?
GFR dropping fast!: Hello. I'm a 58 year old... - Kidney Disease
GFR dropping fast!
Hi Lebrat,
Some doctors myopically like to deal with things. That means, they focus on one thing and not the holistic situation. Your doctor who is dealing with the BP needs to consider your CKD. Water pills are not a good thing for CKD in some cases. Also certain blood pressures meds are also not good for CKD. There are lots of other choices out there. Talk to your doctor and also you check to see what you are taking. Keeping your BP down is also critical to kidney health. But it is doable without harming kidney function.
medshadow.org/6-medications...
In answer to raising your GFR. Yes, it is possible. Check the medications out first. Then we can talk diet. And 7 pounds is not the cause.
Thank you! I have been taking the same BP meds for so many years. Perhaps one of them is starting to have an adverse affect on my kidneys.
i was diagnosed w/ ckd stage 3 about a year and a have ago.my egfr fluctuates between 40 and 54, my last reading was 47. i have high blood pressure that was under poor control until i started seeing my nephrologist now taking 3 different blood pressure meds. im a 65 yr. old male who has never had a history of diabetes nor does it run anywhere in my family. over the last several months my glucose level has been rising and my last labs 2 weeks ago showed a glucose of 131, normal range should be running no higher then 100. i always fast at least 10 hours before my labs. i spoke w/ my nephrologist about this and she took me off the diuretic chlorothalodone saying that this can cause high glucose levels in some people. i am very concerned about developing diabetes as a result of this if the med change does not work. has anyone had a similar experience ?
My doctor also put me on a diuretic to help my BP and like you, my glucose went up! And I'm not diabetic...was just A1C tested for it a couple of months ago. As a result, he has just taken me off of them. Not sure what will happen with my BP now but I have to get new labs done in two weeks. Both my parents were diabetic and they both swore until they died that those water pills caused the diabetes.
my nephrologist has put me on a less potent diruretic ( so she says) so we will see how that works. it seems with this disease once they have treated one issue another one pops up. it is very frustrating. i try to eat lots of vegtables and as much fruit as i can ( was never much of a fruit lover) no red meat and no sweets and lots of water throughout the day, probably near 2 liters. its really hard to understand and deal with. i will keep trying and hope my blood glucose stabilizes. thank you so much for responding and i wish you good health and all the luck in the world.
Best of luck to you as well!
You did not mention if you are on a CKD diet. If not you might discuss it with your Doctor. I know it has helped me stabilize my eGFR. I am 78 years old so results may vary.
Hi! No, I'm not on a CKD diet. I do watch my salt and I actually have a pretty health lifestyle but I understand there are certain specifics to a CKD diet. I guess my next step will be a dietitian. Thank you!
Yes a dietian is a good idea. Lower your protein intake, no read meat, dairy, processed foods, caffine. Lots of water. Theres lots to learn but once you understand it get easier....and you will feel better.
I moved about 1 1/2 years ago. My first nephrologist following the move wasn’t a good situation. So, I switched to a second nephrologist this past May. What a difference that has made!
My current nephrologist actually started treating the minor changes that had occurred since my move. (The first nephrologist wasn’t doing that. He was just waiting for my eGFR to get low enough to put me on dialysis...) Anyway, with the two minor tweaks my new nephrologist has made to my treatment plan my creatinine has improved some. (I’m in stage V and not yet on dialysis. My creatinine now comes in nearly half the time in low stage IV.) I’m also feeling and functioning much better.
Thus, I’m really glad I shifted to a new nephrologist. How did I find this good nephrologist? The most helpful strategy I tried was to call several dialysis clinics in my area of the city I moved to. I talked with the nurses in charge of these clinics. I asked them which nephrologists strongly supported home dialysis options. (I plan to try PD dialysis first.) I also asked which nephrologists had their patients feeling and functioning fairly well.
The nurses at the dialysis clinics were very helpful. I called some fresenius clinics and some Davita clinics. They’re all I’ve got to choose from within range of my house. The nephrology practice I shifted to was by far the most strongly recommended by the nurses. I then used healthgrades to decide which nephrologist I’d try in that practice. I also called my original nephrologist to seek his opinion. He has worked in this region for several decades and is both well known and well respected throughout the region. Consequently I figured he might know this practice I was considering as well as the specific nephrologist.
When everything seemed to check out for both the practice and the nephrologist, I set the appointment. I knew immediately during that first appointment that I had chosen wisely🐶 So, if you have the option to do so, you might consider trying a new nephrologist or a different PCP or both.
Jayhawker
Good Planning Jayhawker. Thanks for sharing your journey, and thanks for the tips.
Wow! Thank you so much for this. My move was really difficult because I had such a great nephrologist in California but now I'm in North Carolina where the medical care isn't that great. But with such a rapid decline something is going wrong...plus I don't really care that much for my new nephrologist. It's just like you said...he's just waiting for me to go on to dialysis. It could be that I need an adjustment to the many BP meds I'm on. But I'm definitely going to look for someone new. Thanks so much for such an informative response!
Hello, I have to watch my Sodium, Potassium and Phosphate levels in all of my foods. My creatinin was 5.7 several years ago, then I saw a real dietitian. She gave me a list of foods to not eat and I followed it. Thee months later my creatinin was 3.7 ! I have to drink a certain amount of water daily. I only eat 3 ounces of chicken or fish at any meal. So I do not eat potatoes (french fries), oranges (juice), tomatoes (ketchup), any canned foods, health foods with Potassium added, no dark colas, no Ensure or Gatorade, no processed meats like bacon, sausage, lunch meats, or canned meats. There are others on the diet as well. This gives you an idea. So talk with a renal dietitian for a couple of hours and you may save your kidneys!
I read all the comments, I would like to share my GFR right now is 4% my creatinine levels and GFR has been dropping I went from stage 1 in a year all the way down to Stage 5 the end of renal kidney failure I am not on dialysis yet because I feel a little bit fine the doctor is monitoring me twice a week with blood draws and he will let me know when it's absolutely time for me to go on dialysis I wish and pray that I knew what I can do to stop my creatinine from climbing I'm currently at 11.6 right now and again GFR at 4% I have been eating I'm not vomiting, and I'm not swelling so sometimes I wonder what's really going on!
You might also try a vegan diet to lower your blood pressure naturally. You will have to work at getting enough plant based protein spread out over the day.
Ask your nephrologist it if makes sense to get a kidney biopsy. I would get your BP medications sorted out. Some BP medications like ACE Inhibitors can affect your creatinine. If you don't have diabetes and your blood pressure is well managed, your kidney function should be relatively stable.
Do you drink alcohol? Smoke cigarettes? Smoke dope? Take painkillers? Take laxatives? Anti-depressants? Street drugs? There are prescription and over the counter medications which can cause kidney damage. Also, as others have pointed out, moving to a more of a plant-based diet can help your creatinine. There's an association between eating a lot of red meat and winding up in stage 5 kidney failure. A high protein diet like Atkins can damage kidneys that are already impaired.
I had kidney cancer in 2014, so I get a kidney ultrasound every year. They found small tumor and removed the tumor...no chemo or anything. I had breast cancer twice, with chemo. I'm not diabetic, but I've had HBP since my 20's (hereditary). I'm 58 now. But the BP fluctuates often. I've been on the same 3 BP meds for 20 years. About 10 years ago I was almost addicted to Advil for my migraines. That was bad. I've never smoked, drink maybe once a week, no drugs. I'm a gym rat and work out 6 days a week. I haven't eaten red meat in 40 years. So all of this is confusing to me. But I'm really starting to believe it was the combo of HBP and Advils that got me here. I'm trying now to move to more plant based, but I admit I do love fish! Thanks for your suggestions!
Well in all the other stages my GFR would jump around and even go up as much as 15 points sometimes. So I don't know after that!
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