Dear Abby: EARLY SCREENING FOR DISEASE CAN PREVENT KIDNEY FAILURE

[okarol]

EARLY SCREENING FOR DISEASE CAN PREVENT KIDNEY FAILURE
By Abigail Van Buren Abigail Van Buren Thu Mar 5, 2:17 am ET

DEAR ABBY: I was a healthy 12-year-old girl in junior high, sociable and energetic with no cares in the world, until one day my mother noticed I wasn't my usual self. I was tired and had no interest in any activities. Frustrated, she encouraged me to try out for my school's volleyball team.

What was supposed to be a routine physical for the team turned into a life-changing experience. I did not end up making the team. Instead I was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. My test results showed that I had too much protein in my urine. After more tests, I was told I was in kidney failure.

I was only 12, and I didn't understand why this was happening to me. Nobody was expecting the news we got that day. The doctors told my parents that I would need to go on dialysis or have a kidney transplant and we should start looking for a donor.

A urine test was never part of any of my annual checkups. But protein in the urine is one of the earliest signs of kidney disease. That simple test might have prevented me from losing both kidneys.

Nearly 100,000 men, women and children are now on the waiting list for a lifesaving organ transplant. One hundred people are added to the list -- and 17 die -- every day. With early detection kidney disease can be prevented. So please urge your readers to get screened now and screened often. -- KLARISSA RAMIREZ, MINNEAPOLIS

DEAR KLARISSA: Thank you for your letter. I was, frankly, shocked to learn from it that kidney disease could strike a person at such a tender age. I'm pleased to pass along your important message.

Readers, March is National Kidney Month -- and March 12 is World Kidney Day. The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) has a screening program called KEEP, which stands for Kidney Early Evaluation Program. On World Kidney Day, KEEP will offer FREE screenings in cities across the country for people at risk for kidney disease.

If you or a family member has diabetes or high blood pressure, or if there is a history of kidney disease in your family, visit kidney.org to learn more and locate a screening near you, or call the National Kidney Foundation at 1-800-622-9010.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucda/20090305/lf_ucda/earlyscreeningfordiseasecanpreventkidneyfailure

[KarenInWA]

and this is where I have to lift my hands up in frustration and ask "huh?".  I was first diagnosed with kidney problems at age 23, due to protein in the urine.  Since then, my kidney function has been monitored, and all it does is keep going down.  I've seen it go from 60% to now 30%.  If early detection is supposed to help me keep my kidneys, why don't I benefit from it?  I've been told by 2 nephs that all we can do more or less is monitor it, then address it with "kidney replacement therapy" when the time comes.  So, if my early detection isn't helping, then what good is it?

KarenInWA

[paul.karen]

I think you can slow the process by eating right and keeping bloodpressure in check ect ect.
You cant get rid of it just slow the progress down if caught early enough.
Oh and hello Karen

[paris]

My diagnosis helped me to recognize what I could do to help slow my progression.  It also matters what is causing the kidney failure.   Early detection of any disease is important.  It doesn't "cure" the disease, but it may help slow it down.

[Rerun]

Every high school sport physical I had said I had too much protine in my urine.  No direction to see another doctor.  No concern about kidneys.  They just let me go and slip through the cracks.  So, it was a TOTAL surprise when I ended up in the emergency room at age 24 with total renal failure.  If nothing else.... by knowing early you can parpare yourself for dialysis.  To be told you have renal failure and go on dialysis the same day is a little overwhelming!

                                                       

[KarenInWA]

You do have a very valid and true point, Rerun!  It is better to know than to not know, if for mental preparation more than anything else.  I can't imagine what you must have gone through at the much too young age of 24 - all I CAN do is  because you deserve that and more for going through all of that in your life!  It is tragic when this happens to people at such young ages.   

I still don't know the true cause of my kidney disease.  I haven't had a biopsy yet, but am planning to have one before I see my neph next, which is April 30th.  I'm putting it off for now because my Dad is undergoing prostate cancer treatment, but I know I need to make that phone call already and get that scheduled.  My plan is to have it done at the UW because they require an overnight stay.  My regular neph will not be doing it, as he does not do them anymore.  I try to find the humor in it.  After all, I am voluntarily going to get stabbed in the back! 

KarenInWA

[RightSide]

I've asked two nephs flat-out:  "If my CKD had been detected sooner, might there have been some way to prevent my kidneys from failing altogether?"  They said, probably not.  So what could I have accomplished by knowing a few years sooner that my kidneys were failing?

Knowing in advance what lay in store for me might have given me more time to prepare financially, medically, etc..  But CKD can take a long time to progress from stage 1 to stage 5.  If I had to watch my kidneys deteriorate over a period of 5 or 10 years, it would have just ruined my outlook on life; I would likely have become badly depressed and fearful and I would have had to go on antidepressants, etc. 

This is just another form of the age-old question:  Would you really like to know the exact date in the future on which you're going to die?  And anyone who automatically says "Yes!" hasn't thought enough about it.

[Sunny]

The only drawback I see with simplistic dialog like that going on in the Ann Landers column is that it leads people to think there is some way to stop kidney failure, which in turn leads the general public to think those of us with kidney failure must have done something wrong.

[kitkatz]

I think someone faked that letter to get March as Kidney month into her column. Twelve year olds do not write that well. 

But okay the word is getting out.

I agree with Rerun it was a bi*** to have a diagnosis and dialysis the same night. Then not have anyone give me any information for three days on dialysis or decisions I needed to make.

[okarol]

The only drawback I see with simplistic dialog like that going on in the Ann Landers column is that it leads people to think there is some way to stop kidney failure, which in turn leads the general public to think those of us with kidney failure must have done something wrong.

I had the same thought Sunny. I hate for the people to have the impression that all kidney patients could have avoided the outcome if they had just taken control of their pending failure.

[Chris]

Ahh this was post in the ignorant things people have said thread, but paraphrased.

But as for spilling protein, I was doing that when diagnosed with diabetes and still did that when sugars were high. So if you have a clueless GP, you might be mis diagnosed at first I agree, it doesn't sound like a 12 yr old wrote it, but sure needs a reply for corrections.

[paddbear0000]

I completely disagree about the "12 year olds don't write like that" statements, and even take a little offense to it. At 12 years old, I was winning awards for my writing and was in the Gifted and Talented program as a kid. I wrote an essay about our county's bicentennial which I read during the bicentennial celebration (which included the governor of Maryland) and had a poem published in a book at 13. There are kids out there who are talented writers!