G'day from Australia

[nataliemac]

Hello from Australia

my name is Natalie and my husband Mark was diagnosed with end stage renal failure ( kidneys) in January of this year. Until December of last year my husband was a very hard working farmer who never was sick and never went to the drs he was the biggest blokey bloke i knew. That all changed. He came home from work one day and said i feel really ordinary and went to bed. he felt worse the next day with bad back pain so i dragged ( yes dragged ) him to the drs. Our dr told him that he was just tired after harvest and to just go and rest for a few days. Ahem well that never worked and we were back a few days later to be told oh you just need a poo go home and take a laxative. Needless to say we were back again in a few days and i demanded blood tests. We got a call from the dr the very next day to come straight in. We were told that marks cretnin levels were at 500 and this was not good we were referred to a specialist and sent straight to the hospital for a biopsy. the specialist took 12 goes stabbing Mark in the back to get a piece of his kidney and Mark ended up in Intensive care with a bleed. Best thing was he came back 3 days later saying that the damage was reversable i thought it was a miracle...................

Marks cretanin levels continued to rise he was put on prendisolone and would fly off into rages whilst on this drug i was so glad when they took him off it. We arent sure why but Marks kidneys never recovered and his cretanin levels then went to over 700 the specialist decided that it was time to for dialysis. Mark went and had a permacath put in his neck and we had our first session of dialysis. He now has very high blood pressure too the specialist assures me that its because of the kidneys.

He is due to have his fistula put in in June and we have already been to an information session for kidney transplant the best thing is we dont have to decide right now if we want to get a transplant or not as when you go on the list your wait time is taken from the day you started dialysis

Im so very happy i found your site it might answer the many questions i have ...........some i would not feel comfortable to ask the specialist I have read so many threads already and its easy to lose myself for hrs in here. thanks so much for accepting me and my grumpy hubby

[talker]

    Hello and       nataliemac

Quite sure that the many questions that arise will answered in some way, shape or form.

Thought my cretanin level was high at 120.   

Ah me that all goes well for you both.

talker

[nataliemac]

im not sure if its an aussie thing or what but the specialist told us that around the 100 was for a person with normal functioning kidneys ?? so yay for you

Mark had an episode today where he thought he was dying they had to give him oxygen he couldnt breathe he got all sweaty and hot. he has had 1 attack before of whatever this is but it leaves him pretty sad. one minute they tell him not to take his blood pressure medication before dialysis and the next they tell him to i wish they would get it right.

[Bambino_Bear]

 

[Jean]

 Welcome Natalie, hope you can learn lots here. I am like you, I lose myself in some of these posts and researching. Ask away and some one here will help you.

[Sue]

Hi Natalie. Welcome to IHD.  I am also in Australia - Perth.

[Darthvadar]

  to IHD, Natttelie

Good to have you on board...

Visit and post often... We love frequent discussion....

Darth, Moderator...

[Poppylicious]

Hi Natalie.  Your story sounds similar to mine and my Blokey's. After a biopsy we were told that there were four things wrong with the kidneys and all were reversible.  Just weeks later he was rushed into Hospital with a creatinine of 1500 -ish and we've never looked back ... *yikes*! 

I hope we can be invaluable in our support for both of you.

 

Poppylicious, Moderator

[nataliemac]

hey poppylicious

thanks i really wish we could get a straight answer on exactly what is wrong with his kidneys they say end stage renal failure they say reversible damage they say he probably got a cold and his kidneys attack themselves ..........................all i really know for sure is he is on dialysis 

[cariad]

  Natalie! You and Mark have been through too much in such a short time span. I'm glad you found us and that you're jumping straight into the discussions. We have a good size Aussie contingent here, so if you have questions specific to Oz, you should be able to get those answers. (Which I think is pretty cool!)

Please keep posting. I look forward to getting to know you better! 

[nataliemac]

Thanks Cariad

Ive moved myself down to the caregivers thread i figure thats the best place to post i have a few questions i guess just general ones like why do they say no salt etc no gravy etc and then say you can have it?? which is it to be? lol then they ay oh you can have it just in moderation.................... you cant have chocolate i ask well can he have carob instead................we arent sure.........................hang on arent you the experts?? sigh its all just new i will get there

[RichardMEL]

G'day Natalie and welcome to IHD!!

hmm they say 100 is about a normal person's creatanine? that's a lil on the high side I would have thought.. more 60-100ish but everyone's a bit different. Sure, 100 is a good number. With a transplant my most recent labwork was at 128, so yeah just a bit above normal, but very very much nicer than 1000+ while on dialysis.

Anyway I'm sorry you and your hubby have had this "out of the blue" thing hit you like a fast moving train - that is not good. As for what has caused the kidney failure? could be anything. It seems that it's not acute which sucks and more chronic. I'm really sorry to hear that. Hoping things can stabalise when on dialysis for him.

my best wishes to you and glad you found our community!