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

[rimbo74]

A&M?  You are going to let him get brain washed?  What position will he be playing?

[devon]

I was told mine was caused (probably) by Post Staphylococcal Infections. That is, I had a staph infection that lodged in my kidneys and worked over several months to destroy them.  I was 16 and living in Viet Nam when that happened. I was in the hospital for a couple months where I was treated with IV anti-biotics.  When I was admitted I had a body temp of 106 and was going into shock.  I don't remember much except when they put me in a bed of ice and I didn't feel anything, not even a chill because I was burning up inside.   The doc said another hour and I would have died.

Since then, I was prone to kidney infections and finally in 1998 I started my decline. My creatinine was over 2.5, then 3.0 in 2000 and now it's 5.7.  The progression has finally gotten to Stage IV and ESRD in that last year.  I should be starting dialysis in 3-4 months, as soon as the fistula heals.

-Devon

[devon]

OOPS!!! It was STREP not STAPH infection! DOH! 

[annabanana]

Randy had a kidney removed because of cancer...but now his remaining kidney is failing because of Hepatitis C, or so says the neph. He has also had HBP for years.

[neight]

I voted Obstruction. It was really allot of things. I was born with one kidney atrophied (small and not working) and one working. When I was 5 I had an obstruction in my urethra which blew my ureters out and damaged the good kidney. Once fixed my bladder didn't know how to "hold" urine making my childhood hell. Then through the years I became a teen and drugs and alcohol became a factor along with hypertension. With no health insurance, I didn't know my kidney was failing till it was too late and straight to dialysis I went.

[paddbear0000]

Can we change our vote? I had chosen type 1 diabetes, but since then, my doctors have decided it was due to hospital error.

[Chris]

Can we change our vote? I had chosen type 1 diabetes, but since then, my doctors have decided it was due to hospital error.

Hospital Error?
 

[okarol]

Can we change our vote? I had chosen type 1 diabetes, but since then, my doctors have decided it was due to hospital error.

I dunno if you can change the vote, but what was the error?

[paddbear0000]

Not sure exactly. I was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital back in 2005 for a bronchitis like cough and vomiting up blood. They told me it was asthma (WTF?!). I was uninsured, so the next day they kicked me out. In the 24 hours I was there, I swelled up with fluid, putting on 30 pounds of water weight, and got an infection going up my entire arm from the IV. And they still kicked me out. Right after that, my kidneys statred to fail. Thinking back, I should have sued the hospital, but I had no proof by that point. I ended up with a $13,000 hospital bill and ended up declaring bankruptcy as a result. 

[okarol]

Sheesh! So sorry, that's just horrible! 

[KT0930]

OMG, Padda!

[Jannie]

Bright's disease, supposedly a catch-all category.

[mysty]

Any of these things can cause failure?  OMG.. The list is enormous!..
Kind of a wake up call to pay attention to these things to me..

[kuronekochan]

my kidney failure was caused directly by HIV (the virus attacks the cells in the kidney)... this "HIV-associated nephropathy" (HIVAN) is becoming more and more common...

[Chris]

Not sure exactly. I was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital back in 2005 for a bronchitis like cough and vomiting up blood. They told me it was asthma (WTF?!). I was uninsured, so the next day they kicked me out. In the 24 hours I was there, I swelled up with fluid, putting on 30 pounds of water weight, and got an infection going up my entire arm from the IV. And they still kicked me out. Right after that, my kidneys statred to fail. Thinking back, I should have sued the hospital, but I had no proof by that point. I ended up with a $13,000 hospital bill and ended up declaring bankruptcy as a result. 

Sorry to hear,
I guess I was lucky with my local hospital. I was uninsurred and unemployed. I was taken by ambulance to the ER due to hypoglycemic attack I awoke from and somehow called my mother's work and she called 911. No idea how I got the front door open either because I had trouble moving. Anyway, the hospital found out I had kidney failure, admitted me, started dialysis, and did the graft surgery while not rushing to kick me out. I was there for about 2 weeks andthe social worker there helped me out geting help from the National Kidney oundation, and where to get help from Social Security, and State Medicaid office. After being released I didn't have to pay for any of it, I just recieved one statement from the hospital and that was it. Seeing the doctors afterwards is another story. I am still paying off one of them.

To bad your hospital was not more helpfull especially Johns Hopkins who should know what resources are out there with all the patients they see.

[paddbear0000]

Everyone thinks Johns Hopkins should be some great hospital, but it's not! When I went to my transplant evaluation last month, I got into a conversation with the nurse who was taking my blood about how my kidneys failed. I told her, and she said that they recently had a patient who came to OSU to have a botched kidney transplant that Hopkins had done fixed.  If I was on my death bed, I would refuse to go there again!

[skuch65]

I had reflux of the kidneys.  Had surgery when I was 13 now i am 42.  My creatinine was stable at 2.3 until I was about 38 now it is at 3.6 slowly going up.  Starting to fill the effects of it.

[kidney4traci]

Padd that story stinks! Sorry... 

Another Alport's here.  No hearing loss here though, except for when my husband talks (ha ha).

[kimcanada]

I picked Focal Glomerulosclerosis... because it was a very close choice... it is actually listed as Glomerulonephritis (Membranoprolifenative) why on earth would anyone name anything with this many letters?  Its like they never want us to repeat what we have!

[sisterdonor]

No one here got bit by a brown recluse spider?  I have heard a bite by one causes kidney failure.  Is that a myth?

[monrein]

I had an infection of the urinary tract at 8 months old and I also had undiagnosed reflux.  I was born in Jamaica and they initially misdiagnosed me with PKD and did not give me an antibiotic which may have spared my kidneys.  The infection continued so my official diagnosis is pyelonephritis.   I was also born with one kidney very much smaller than the other and I wet the bed until I was almost 12.  I started my period at 9 and it seems as if my body got all mixed up about stopping and starting things at the age-appropriate time.

[spacezombie]

As for me, it is only believed to be Alports Syndrome as my Uncle had it too along with deafness as do I.  We're not sure though as the tissue in my biopsy was too far gone for them to be sure.  The symptoms however, all support Alports and what is interesting is that I was initially given anti - inflammotary pain killers for foot pain which may or may not have killed off any remaining kidney function I had left.

I have Alports too. Do you have complete hearing loss? When did you lose your hearing? I lost most of my hearing when I was seven but I'm still plugging along with a little bit left. It would be better with better hearing aids, but I can never afford them.

[paddbear0000]

Do you have health insurance (besides Medicare)? That should cover hearing aids.

[spacezombie]

Do you have health insurance (besides Medicare)? That should cover hearing aids.

Medi-cal covers hearing aids if my current aids are more than three years old, I think. I like to get digital hearing aids rather than analog but usually Medi-Cal won't cover those (this has probably changed). I will check with them after my transplant and try to get new aids. Regular insurance has never covered hearing aids for me. They are usually deemed a prosthetic and not necessary.

[Yvonne]

I have ticked John's box as cancer, But over the years he has always had high blood pressure, never treated until 5 years ago. Over the next 5 years he was treated for urine infections many times. He had an xray once and said he only had one kidney but later after a CT scan it was discovered he had a horseshoe kidney. He became incontinent in January 2007 doctor said it was his age (71) On the 31st Jan was rushed into hospital with acute renal failure, doctor said another 4 days and he would have died, never the less he was still in and out of hospital undergoing lots of test, and then in July 2007 he had major surgery to remove prostrate, one kidney and his bladder all with stage 4 cancer.

We still keep saying IF they had and IF we had, he has come through it all but with many complications.