Access within 2 months, dialysis, within 4 months

[ODAT]

Mom's GFR went from 15% to 13% in just about three months. Her creatine up .5 in the same amount of time (3 in Nov 07 and now 3.5). Dr again asked her if she wanted to move ahead. Mom didn't understand his question right away. I kind of did, but thought we had established the fact that she did want to do dialysis. Once she understood she said yes. Her blood pressure was 140/60. Neph also told her to stop taking calcitrite (sp?).

Neph called vascular while we were there to have him contact mom to set up access surgery. Mom will still be on Plavix when the surgery occurs, but the vasc told us he could still do surgery and he would take extra precautions. Neph told us and vasc that he wanted him to try a fistula first.

Remember those bumps in my mother's stomach? Well, the neph was concerned about them. I told him we went to a hernia doc a couple years ago who only said it wasn't a hernia but didn't say much else. He asked mom if she had any liver issues. None that we are aware of. Not sure where this will go as he didn't schedule any further tests.

I asked the neph if having to take Arenesp shots was due to the kidneys. Mom told him before he answered that she'd been getting the shots for a long time and the docs tell her she 'is bleeding but they don't know where it is going.' He emphatically said that it was because of the kidneys. Something about not producing enough red blood cells. I just can't believe that her PCP didn't make the connection.

Right now again waiting until the vasc calls to schedule surgery. My niece's father-in-law was told that he would have to get a graft and start dialysis. We talked about it on Christmas day and he said he was scheduled for the surgery in a couple weeks and would probably start dialysis within a couple months. Well he ended up in the hospital with a chest cath and then they did the surgery. He is home and doing well. So this is good for my mom to hear.

Thanks for all your support and I pray everyone is doing well.

[MyssAnne]

ODAT,

I hope all goes well for your mother, and the surgery is relatively pain and stress free for her.

Let us know when her surgery is, and how she does!

[jbeany]

Odat, the kidneys make a hormone, erythropoietin, that tells the bone marrow to make red blood cells.  When the kidneys start to fail, they don't make enough.  I was on some form of synthetic epo, either Procrit or Aranesp, for 10 years before my kidneys were bad enough to need dialysis.  My docs also assumed I was bleeding before they figured out it was a kidney problem.  I was staggering around for a while with a hemoglobin of 6 before the leukemia specialist they had sent me to when the endocrinologist couldn't figure it out pointed out the obvious and got me started on Procrit.

Hope your mom's surgery goes well.

[ODAT]

thanks for clearing that up for me jbeany. I'll keep you posted on mom's progress.

[Ang]

hope  the surgery goes  smoothly

[Sluff]

Your Mom will be in my prayers, I hope all goes smoothly.