Does GFR ever drop to zero?

[RightSide]

With ESRD, does one's GFR eventually go down to zero, meaning the kidneys have totally stopped working?  Or can the kidneys retain some minimal level of functioning, say a GFR of 7 or 8, indefinitely?

My GFR is 13, and I'm wondering if it will hit zero in the months or years ahead.

[nursewratchet]

Not ususally.  Do they do a "24 hour urine" test on you? 

[RightSide]

They didn't do an official 24 hour urine test, but I can tell that I pee quite a bit.  Every few hours or so, I'll empty my bladder, just as I did before I developed ESRD.  So that's what, 13 ounces of urine, each time I void my bladder?

I never had swollen ankles or other signs of fluid buildup, prior to starting on dialysis.  What I had was uremia (urea building up in my blood), and anemia from my kidneys' failing to produce erythropoietin.  My guess is that those endocrine functions must stop working, long before the basic ability of the kidney to filter out water stops working.  Because I can still pee.  But those endocrine functions are gone.

[Rerun]

I haven't peed for 2 1/2 years so that would be a YES.  And I still have my native kidneys.  Most lifers don't have any kidney function.

[kellyt]

I peed a good amount all the way up to the morning of my transplant, but my GFR was 7.  Actually, my GFR had been bouncing between 6 and 7 since about July 2008.  I wonder what it is now?  Do they do a 24-hr urine 1 year post transplant?

My creatinine is now 1.1, BTW!!!!!!!