My Brother may be having kidney issues

[bette1]

I talked to my Mom today and she mentioned that my brother was having severe swelling in his legs, and foamy urine.  I was really alarmed because those were the first symptom I'd had of my kidney disease.  I called him up and talked to him, but because he doesn't have insurance, the doctors in the ER gave him water pills and a prescription for compression stockings and sent him home.

I talked to him a long time and he's going to go to the county hospital and ask for a urine stick test to see if he has protein in his urine.  I am really worried about him.  He's my baby brother and I don't want him to have to deal with the dialysis thing. I also don't know how he can really access good health care without insurance.  He's in barber college.

Any ideas?

[MooseMom]

I talked to him a long time and he's going to go to the county hospital and ask for a urine stick test to see if he has protein in his urine.  I am really worried about him.  He's my baby brother and I don't want him to have to deal with the dialysis thing. I also don't know how he can really access good health care without insurance.  He's in barber college.

This makes me soooooo mad...that he can't access good pre-dialysis care without insurance.  That could mean more dollars spent treating ESRD than CKD.  But more than that, it's just immoral.  But my rage doesn't help your brother.  Having him go to the country hospital is a good first step.  Perhaps from there he can speak to someone about how to go about getting ongoing care.  Please let us know what he finds out.

[Rerun]

Have them draw blood on him.  His cratinine level tells about kidney function. 

                     

[suzyq73176]

Not sure where you live but in my state some college students qualify for medicaid.

[RightSide]

I would suggest to your brother that he stop eating salt immediately.  That means:  No more putting salt on food; no more salty prepared foods or junk foods.  The most salt he should have is what you get in white bread, say.  You're on a renal diet yourself; you can advise your brother how to change his food habits.

You can suggest the Table Tasty salt substitute till he gets accustomed to eating foods without salt. And doing that doesn't require any insurance claims.   

What's causing the ankles to swell is fluid retention.  And it's likely that your brother still has some residual kidney function, but the kidneys can't control sodium like they used to.  With much lower sodium intake, even damaged kidneys can still excrete quite a bit of urine.  It's worked great for me even though I have ESRD now. 

I'll bet that within 48 hours after stopping all salt intake, your brother will start making tremendous amounts of urine, and the ankle swellings will subside.  He'll have less thirst and he'll drink much less water too.

[Sunny]

The National Kidney Foundation http://www.kidney.org/ offers free check-ups to look at kidney function. I noticed this on their web cite. Maybe your brother can check the web cite for a location near where he lives to get his kidneys checked.