Kidney issues from age 3

Hello all from a newbie on here.

So I'm a 49 year old mother of one and from the age of 3 I have had kidney infections (very high temperature, vomiting, weight lose, back pain) at 18 I have x-rays and found my left kidney was 7cm and the right 11cm, with renal scaring. Was told the damage would have happened in the womb. My kidney filtration is 62 and creatine is 89.

As I got older infections got less, they coped with me being pregnant but every known again I feel unwell and have to have antibiotics.

2 years ago I found out I had high blood pressure so started on ramapril, to my surprise I also have high ish cholesterol and very high triglycerides. My doctor said I could start on statins if I want.

I have a bmi of 26, gained a stone since jan 2022. don't smoke, walk my dog and eat healthy.

For the past 33 months I have had what I thought was tennis elbow in both elbows. Both elbows are stiff and painful when i wake up and is painful to lift or stretch. blood tests dont show any inflammatory issues but that I have high Urate levels. The doctor is unsure its gout but is putting me in Colchine to see if it helps.

Also my fasting blood glucose level is regularly about 6. I was wondering if I was pre diabetic and I also get days of upset stomach and reflux

As you can imagine I am fed up and feel im trapped in an unhealthy body. The constant elbow pain is really bringing me down and im struggling to be motivated which is affecting my daily life and marriage. My husband is fed up with hearing about the way I am feeling so felt I could share it on here

Many thanks

Blue

[orangecity41 NKF Ambassador]

Welcome to the forum where we share information on Chronic Kidney Disease and support each other on our CKD journey. Here is a link to information eGFR. kidney.org/atoz/content/gfr

[Hidden in reply to orangecity41]

Thank you for the link orange

[RonZone]

Hey, you will find a lot of folks on here with multiple issues like yours, so you definitely are not alone. I do recommend that you look at the entire Health Unlocked site, not just the Kidney Disease community. There are many communities, some of which could be a good fit for some of your other issues like pain and stomach issues. So don't limit yourself. Join others as well so you get the best all round support! That being said, your kidney issues are not a huge problem currently based on the numbers you mentioned, but could be in the future if not attended. Do you have a Nephrologist yet? (Kidney doc)?

[Hidden in reply to RonZone]

thank you. No I don't only my normal doctor who isn't bothered by them really. I did see a specialist over 13 years ago who said he thought I had had reflux nephropathy before I was born. What bothers me is the that I have high blood pressure and urate so something isn't working right.

[Beachgirl32]

Welcome to the forum . I know I have other issues beside my polycystic kidney disease . I just try to focus on something good each day. With stage 3 there so much your nephrologist can do now to slow ckd there a lot if new medicines out you may want to talk to nephrologist about that .

[Hidden in reply to Beachgirl32]

thanks. You sound like you have a good mental attitude to your condition. I feel I want to be aware of what's going on so I don't have trouble as I get older.

[RoxanneKidney]

revamp thaT diet . .seems like every thing hinges on fruits and veggies

[Hidden in reply to RoxanneKidney]

morning. Good advice. I do eat loads of veg. Banana, Yog and oat smoothie every morning (no bread, crisps,) I snack on raw veg and dog walk most days. I do over 8,000 steps a day. And some evening's have a glass of red wine.

[RoxanneKidney in reply to Hidden]

That is awesome!

[CatOnACloud]

Did you know gout can arise from kidneys not working well? Most common cause. I would be very concerned about a lifetime’s worth of frequent UTIs with no known cause. I had frequent infections from ages 6 to 17–at 17 one of my kidneys was found to be grossly diseased from infections and removed. A congenital blocked ureter was the cause, but I never should have lost a kidney to it. So, make yourself heard. Follow up appointments in writing. See some new doctors. Kidneys don’t really regenerate once they’ve been damaged, and infections can be so insidious, as can high bp. Always best to get some definitive scans. Best

[Hidden in reply to CatOnACloud]

thank you for your advice and sorry to hear you lost a kidney. I haven't had a UTI for about 2 years which is good but sometimes I don't feel well (not temperature but feel odd) and send a wee sample in and end up for antibiotics for a week. I do wee checks with dip sticks maybe once a week and quiet often have leukocytes in my wee 🤷 it's really interesting about gout as no doctor has made that connection. X

[CatOnACloud in reply to Hidden]

Yikes. If they give you antibiotics then you have infection. Sometimes there’s some infection leftover and then it comes back of course there’s an origin here… I’d be so concerned about competency because kidney is the number one cause of gout. Even at stage 3, they don’t filter out the urate/uric acids well enough so they build up and pow gout time. I had a year or two here and there between infections…in us here gotta see Rheumatology for gout, no clue how it is there. An ultrasound is good but scans are much better. Get what you can

[Hidden]

morning. Thank you for the advice. I had another blood test last week and my urate is still above 300. The doctor gave me gout meds for only 5 days so I don't know if it really helped. I think it did. Ive just started on statins for my high triglycerides and cholesterol so need to ask if gout meds are ok with Statins. I am finding the constant arm joint pain really hard to deal with mentally. X X

[Hidden]

So this morning my back pain returned while on my dog walk so I did a dip stick test and I have leukocytes and blood in my urine. I have sent a sample onto the doctors but I don't feel like I have a UTI 🤷

Dip stick test