POLL: Causes of kidney failure / disease - Please see if yours is shown here.

[Aubrey]

Probably high blood pressure, though this isn't definite.

[Roxanne610]

Anti Rejection Medications is missing for transplant recipient's...  Thats a common concern in Organ transplants.

[mdpeters]

I am assuming that high blood pressure caused my kidney disease.  I have also heard it the other way around too....that kidney disease can cause high blood pressure.  Either way, I am just unhappy and angry that this happened to me.  I cry a lot.  Apparently this did not happen overnight - it was going on for a while and I didn't know about it.  I felt fine.  I thought I was healthy, and the next thing I knew I had kidney disease!  I was not in any pain.  ( I still am not in any physical pain, but a lot of emotional pain)  The only reason why I went to the doctor was because of a dry cough that I was having that lasted for more than 2 1/2 weeks and I was feeling a bit tired...more than normal.  Couple of blood tests and a urine test later I'm sitting in the office of a kidney specialist who is telling me I have stage 4 chronic kidney disease.  I keep hoping that this is all just a bad dream that I'm going to wake up from.

Prayers for each and everyone of you.....we're all in this together and having people that really understand what you're feeling and going through is such a blessing because sometimes you really feel alone.

[Falkenbach]

I am in the "I don't know" category, as my doctors could never explain it. I've always held a suspicion about Tofranil (imipramine) that I was taking for depression at the time. I misunderstood the doctor's questions to me about side effects, so I wasn't telling her things I should have been telling her, such as urinary symptoms that I did not understand. If I'd told her, she'd have never increased the dose to the level that we did - but that depression was terribly resistant at the time, dammit, and this treatment was finally showing signs of working when all others had failed.

Tofranil is also used for treating bed wetting in children, so known for slowing the urine. I was a very small person in my early 20s (around 42 kg in weight, it was my natural weight and not an eating disorder or illness), so a high dose of this drug may well have been risky.

I have also done some reading on the internet about POSSIBLE links between adult chicken pox and problems like kidney failure. I got chicken pox at 19, just a few years before the kidney dysfunction was discovered.

[okarol]

 

[MandaMe1986]

Well it is hard to say, I have been told it was a so many diffrent things.  One constent though is Lupus erythematosus.  Lupus doesn't show up in my blood test, but my last doc told me that I am a rare case.  So last I heard it was Lupus.  I have had to see a few diffrent kinds of docs and of course everyone has there own idea and no one can agree, but I am pretty sure it is Lupus cause I am now having other diffrent symptoms. but yeah thanks for this poll

[RightSide]

I should have explained my cause on this thread; I've already explained it elsewhere.

The cause of my kidney failure was urinary retention from Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH).  Urinary retention led to urine backing up in my ureters.  And that, in turn, led to hydronephrosis of my kidneys, which damaged my kidneys beyond their capacity to heal.

Evidently, BPH can cause urinary retention sufficient to cause kidney failure, even if the man is still able to urinate through the enlarged prostate.  Thus the man's kidneys may fail without warning (which is what happened to me).

[sewerrat4u]

Yellow again!  Yes I must say that the cause of my kidney failure is me...... I'm the diabetic who didn't heed all the warnings about what can happen when you don't take care of yourself. Damn if ain't true!!! I can't blame anyone , I can't have someone policing what I eat everyday!
 So what caused my kidneys to fail and have high BP, not be able to  work!, not have the energy to help around the house , (the poor wify)
 The answer  again is ME!!!!

[TexasLonghorn]

Fibrillary Glomerulonephritis - extremely rare, I guess that's why I got it.


http://www.unckidneycenter.org/kidneyhealthlibrary/fibrillarygn.html

[Michael57]

Hi:

Am quite surprised at number of people with PKD. Usually represents a much smaller portion of ESRD pateints. Good luck to all.

[deafman]

My kidney failure was caused Mesangiocapillary glomerulonephritis.  Otherwise they really dont know!!   

[cat]

The doctors have no idea what caused my kidneys to fail.     I had no warning.  I do not have, nor have I ever had, any of the "classic" signs of kidney disease.  I have never been sick (except for the usual childhood diseases back in the 50's).  I am not diabetic.  I have low blood pressure.  I am a little under weight, but not severely.  Then three years ago, I started feeling weak and was not able to walk more than a few feet at a time and my right hand was partially paralyzed.  It came on very suddenly.  I was diagnosed with neuropathy (in both legs and ulnar neuropathy in my right arm) and was forced to go on SS disability.  I spent a whole year going to every specialist they could think of and had every test they could come up with - and then some!  No cause for the neuropathy was ever found.  In looking over the blood tests and CT scans done even as recently as two years ago, there is no sign of possible kidney problems.  In late July 2008, I started feeling weaker.  At first, I just thought it was due to the neuropathy because that makes me feel weak and unable to walk.  On August 10th, my husband took me to the ER because he was so worried.  By that evening, I was on dialysis with a diagnosis of complete kidney failure.  The doctors had no idea what caused it.  A CT scan taken two years earlier showed that my kidneys were "normal".  It was quite a shock to go on dialysis without warning.  I had finally adjusted to life in a wheelchair and had resumed many of my former activities.  My husband and I love camping and fishing and we were going almost every other week.  Then, kidney failure!  I am now weak all the time.  I am told that I will adjust to the exhaustion I feel after dialysis.  It takes me a day to recover and then it is time for another session!  I just wish I knew what caused all my problems.

 

cat

[purple]

G'day sorry to be a pain in the KIDNEY ..oh that is right none of ours work properly..anyway ..the reason I have lost my kidney function is due to a combination of some of these things.. for example I have renal reflux, I also have massive kidney infections...also high blood pressure and also pelonethritis ...I know I can't spell for peannuts sorry ..so you see I should be in a different count I think ...sorry forgive my ignorance ..newbie still trying to find the light at the end of the tunnel Keep smiling 

[KevinCG316]

I was diagnosed with Wegener's Granulomatosis in nov of '06. My family doctor didnt realize the signs as it is very rare disease to get. He told me he knew of 1 person who had it in his 27 years of practice. The 1st hospital i was in didnt know about it either, luckily i got to University of Penn and they got the job done in time be fore it was fatal. Spent about a month and half in the hospital while they treated me. Been on Dialysis now for almost 2 and a half years and on the transplant waiting list.

[Xina54]

My kidney failure was caused by Lithium poisoning.


Remember - it's never too late to become who you might have been . . .

[Stacy Without An E]

My kidney failure was caused by God's total revulsion for my existence.

[paddbear0000]

Oh Stacy, don't say that! That's so sad! 

[Sunny]

Stacy,
That's harsh, because that means we could all say it of ourselves. Why me God?
But I know how you feel.

[TiffanyJean]

I marked 'I don't know' for Richie because the kidney biopsy showed that he had so much scar tissue that the doctors couldn't really tell. They decided that it was probably from having an "extra renal pelvis" which loosely translates to nephrons on the outside, that re-filtered everything back into the kidneys, slowly killing off the the kidney cells.

The only way we might have know was from a urine test done before his senior year of high school (2001) that showed a 1+ protein in his urine and some wonderful doctor/ nurse or whom ever didn't follow up on it. Can't say too much about it as we are in the beginning stages of the lawsuit. Needless to say it was about 7 years before he was officially diagnosed, and he is blood type O; and ironically the waiting time for an O kidney on the UNOS list is about 7 years. funny huh!!!! We probably would have gotten a bit of a better biopsy then, and might have had at least a cadaver kidney by now!

 

It is amazing how many ways you can get kidney disease, and even more amazing is how many have no clue how it happened!! kinda nice to not be alone in that respect.

[ahqudit]

My husband has multiple myeloma cancer witch caused his kidneys to quit

[Krisna]

I recently ran across my medical records from when I was diagnosed.  I had obtained them years ago when both my dad and I went to Children's to get our records.  He had been there for brain tumors on 2 separate occasions when he was a kid.  The doctors did believe it was probably a Staph infection that developed from the Chicken Pox I had a year prior.  I had them during the summer and my mom let me and my sister play in the plastic wading pool in the from yard.  Back then nobody thought abt the open sores and dirty water.  So, I'm pretty much convinced that's where it started.

But the reason they failed was negligence on my Pediatrician's part.  My dad got kicked out of the clinic because he was convinced something was wrong with me.  I have recently obtained some pictures of myself from around that time and you can clearly tell something is not right with me!  I had dark circles and pain in my side.  Of course I was so young that I said it was my tummy.  I had protein in my urine an was anemic and had chronic ear infections but the pediatrician insisted there was nothing wrong with me!  My dad got into an argument with him.  The doctor said, "Come back when you become a man!"  My dad said, "I'll come back when you become a doctor!"  A few months later I was in the hospital to have tube put in my ear to help it drain.  I went into congestive heart failure and then I was transferred to Children's.  That was how I found out my kidneys were failing.

[makevalue]

Wow.  Really insightful info here.  I am one of the many whose disease has the label of FSGS i.e. glomerulosclerosis nephritis.  When I was 3, I had a case of the measles and was told this caused it.  Never heard that reason again until last year.  But my neph won't confirm or deny of course.

Bottom line is that if childhood diseases contributed significantly to diseases like CKD and everything that goes with it, our public policy on health care would have to take notice of it.  Would to god it that would happen.   


New to this board.  If you all know of good blogs on CKD, send them my way.

Cheers

[sumodidit]

Hello, I got a rare one for you. I have Light chain deposition disease. It is a rare disease where protein is accumulated in the kidneys and fills it up until the kidneys cannot perform anymore. Ever since I was diagnosed I have always been trying to find someone that has the same disease and could share some information with me.

[Hanify]

Hey Sumo - your thing must be similar to mine - I have Multiple Myeloma, and they test the results by testing my light chains.  I hadn't heard of it as a separate thing.  But the end result in my kidneys was the same.

[sumodidit]

I think it can be associated with mylenoma Hanify, I was researching it and it does mention it. Does your illness kinda starts a domino effect to where it does this and that? Thats what I am having with my disease but if they can control what it starts I'm alright.
Buts its crazy to meet someone who might have it or something so similar because they tell me its so rare.