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

[AnnieB]

Lithium.

[mamagemini]

Fsgs/nephrotic syndrome
Since 2005

[billyM]

nail patella syndrome . i am amazed its even mentioned on here to be honest . I wasnt diagnosed until until i was 27 despite having correctional surgery all my life since birth . such a rare condition .

To whoever else on this site has nps , please , contact . Ive only ever met 1 person , and spoke to approx 6 , who have this condition . none of whom had attained the joy of end stage renal failure.

[Ricksters]

Lupus!

[M3Riddler]

My kidney failure was from a genetic condition called   cystinosis

Cystinosis is a condition in which the body accumulates the amino acid cystine (a building block of proteins) within cells. Excess cystine forms crystals that can build up and damage cells. These crystals negatively affect many systems in the body, especially the kidneys and eyes.

[treesx4]

Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS)

[Lexxtech18]

Bilateral Hypoplastic Kidney Disease (congenital). My kidneys were just too small and deformed for my body.

[okarol]

  For those who haven't voted

[geoffcamp]

WOW. I had no idea how many people get ESRD from high blood pressure (like me). I warn all my friends and family take high BP very seriously!  G.

[jjneyjr]

HBP 230/160 didn't see a doctor for 10 years and diabetes.

[Rader]

I chose type 2 diabetes. but it was a combo of the diabetes and high b.p. that caused it. I also have chf  and all the meds I'm on for everything kinda kicked my kidneys in the rear...

[LabRat]

Mine is definetly not listed here... Adrenal Hyperplasia so far is the main culprit.. how many of you have heard of this disorder?  With my adrenals running amok and my blood pressure going through the roof, it was bound to happen..

[cmcordo]

I picked "other" because I didn't see my diagnosis. It is called Membranoproliferative Glomerulonephritis or MPGN for short.  I was diagnosed in 2005 and started dialysis this year (2013) about four months ago.  It is apparently a rare disease, and it is usually diagnosed in very young children or people in their teens.  I've been told that my cells think that my kidneys are foreign objects in my body and are working to destroy them. 

I am on the transplant list and hope that if I do get a new kidney that my cells won't try to destroy it right away.  My doctors tell me that the disease will never go away and that the cells will eventually destroy the new one.  Maybe by then, I will have had some wonderful years without dialysis before I die.   
 

   

[eyecreate]

I picked ``other`` because I too didnt see my disease...Fibrillary Glomerulonephritis...different from MPGN....mine is called FGN. I know this is very very rare, and a name was only put to it in 1977....   I too am opting for getting on the transplant list, just waiting due to blood transfusion. My disease came in like a tornado and lterally destroyed my kidneys  overnight..and left unwanted proteins for bad diseases, that eventually disapeared, such as multiple myeloma ...i show no sign of fbn in my body anymore it came and went really fast, but destoryed them completely...i had no chronic symptoms. I am totally disease free now, and hopefully successfully get a live donor, but who? I am as i see below with Cmcordo..below, ,im waiting for some fun years, im only 53 the mean age for developing this disease, it largely hits white women age of 53...okay that was me...by the way, mcordo..my last name was  mccord...funny... ..
Just diagnosed in Dec 2012, began PD April 2013...and hopefully transplant list in November 2013

[seadialysis]

I wrote a short article on kidney failure here: http://seadialysis.com/diabetes-kidney-failure/

Basically sugar is the cause.

[ianch]

Aged 3 complicated surgery went wrong leaving an infection.  Believed to have stopped growth and killed 50% function (they are coin sized even now).  The rest I think dropped off at age 37 in the Philippines when I got Phenomia 4 days before my wedding.  Its not proven but all the symptoms that carried on for 15 months indicate my kidneys died or were pretty dead during that period. 

Went to see doc about a sore led (boil) 15 months later and ended up in emergency as soon as the bloods hit the lab.  Apparently I was off the charts and no one could understand why i was still breathing.  I think it was because the drainage still worked back then.
 
Lucky it was caught as we had planned to spend Xmas in the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia.  I was told I had 30 days to live at the stats they saw - a  bit of a surprise as my body was coping at the time.   
 

 

[obsidianom]

My wife has many medical issues, but no one that explains her kidney problems leading to dialysis. Her nephrologist could never explain it. I am a physician and cant really explain it either. She may have some type weird autoimmune syndrome , or chronic infections or hypertension, but nothing definitive that killed her kidneys. They are a bit small but worked well for 63 years. She still  urinates but cant eliminate toxins/urea. Modernmedicine is very weak in explaining and treating kidney disease. Its usually wait and watch while the kidneys slowely die . That is what happened to her. She is not diabetic either or heavy . She barely weighs 110 pounds. We never saw this coming. She has genetic medicalproblems but no one in family had kidney disease.

[Krisna]

A while back I was attempting to get another transplant.  And while describing my symptoms to the transplant Nephrologist she said it sounded like Reflux.  After reading up on it, I agree.  I sounds like I had Reflux that was un-diagnosed due to the negligence of my Pediatrician! 

Previously, I had stated that I thought it was a staph infection.

However, officially it says Glomerulonephritis of unknown origin.  (I learned how to spell that word when I was 8 yrs old.  lol)

[Gerald Lively]

I voted Cancer as the cause but that is much too simplistic to be true.

It began in January 2011 when I went to my GP to inquire about my abdomen which was protruding and had been since the previous Thanksgiving. The GP sent me to X-ray and decided that I was constipated.  He prescribed a laxative.  The beer belly was still there and it did not react to diet or exercise. By late June I was frustrated enough to search out my own treatment and demanded a colonoscopy.  The Specialist sent me out for a CT scan which he explained as a preliminary procedure.  The scan showed three large tumors diagnosed as Lymphoma.

I contacted my Oncologist (I have known him for years) and he sent me to the hospital - - by the time I reached the hospital a few days later, I was hallucinating.  It was a weird world I was in.  I was wheeled into the hospital, lost consciousness for the next six days.  During that time Renal Failure was diagnosed.  I woke up to the noise of a dialysis machine.

It was explained to me that the cancer blocked something causing my kidneys to stop working.  While I did have cancer, it was of a type that could be “knocked down” rather quickly; meaning, had my GP not misdiagnosed my cancer by calling it constipation, my kidneys would not have failed.

Eight months later I had a 33% kidney function and I escaped from the dialysis center.

So, I voted “cancer” instead of doctor error. 

gl

[LEDZEP]

I voted other my stage 5 CKD was caused by HIV antiviral drugs

[Sten]

p-Anca vasculitis, a rare auto-immune affecting small blood vessels of lungs and kidneys. 1 in 50k. It was a miracle I survived; my chances were very slim.

[Dverdugo]

Other. My mother after giving birth to my sister 1996 began having protein in her urine. Her doctors never raised a concern about this until the spring of 2012. I 2012 her primary doctor told her that she needs to see a neurologist, through out the 2 months she was going to this doctor he put her on meds that made her gain a lot of weight (steroids) then told us she needed to have a biopsy done. Summer 2012 we had biopsy done, doctor told us it was an infection to continue taking meds, didn't tell us if this was life threading or anything. 6 months later this doctor resigns( what the???)  my mom was feeling fine so we didn't even really think to find a new doctor .. But I said she needed to go so I scheduled an appt summer 13. Went to the new neph. And when I showed him the biopsy report he said OMG!  Her kidney function was 15% at this point. He scheduled a new biopsy and later explained to us, that my moms own body was attacking the kidney. He never gave us a name but said she would need to start dialysis really soon. In the months leading to sept. Everything declined , my mom went from 15% kidney function to 2% over 2 days. Now she's on dialysis, she is still peeing.  I don't really know what to call what she has, dies anyone know??

[obsidianom]

Other. My mother after giving birth to my sister 1996 began having protein in her urine. Her doctors never raised a concern about this until the spring of 2012. I 2012 her primary doctor told her that she needs to see a neurologist, through out the 2 months she was going to this doctor he put her on meds that made her gain a lot of weight (steroids) then told us she needed to have a biopsy done. Summer 2012 we had biopsy done, doctor told us it was an infection to continue taking meds, didn't tell us if this was life threading or anything. 6 months later this doctor resigns( what the???)  my mom was feeling fine so we didn't even really think to find a new doctor .. But I said she needed to go so I scheduled an appt summer 13. Went to the new neph. And when I showed him the biopsy report he said OMG!  Her kidney function was 15% at this point. He scheduled a new biopsy and later explained to us, that my moms own body was attacking the kidney. He never gave us a name but said she would need to start dialysis really soon. In the months leading to sept. Everything declined , my mom went from 15% kidney function to 2% over 2 days. Now she's on dialysis, she is still peeing.  I don't really know what to call what she has, dies anyone know??

This sounds like an auto immune disease, which means the body's immune system is attacking the persons own body . Many times the kidneys are the target. It may be IgA nephropathy which is one type and there are others it also could be. That is probably why she was put on prednisone(steroids) as it reduces the immune system actions. Many people still urinate while on dialysis but the kidneys arent functioning correctly or enough.

[Dverdugo]

Thank you !!

[JaeCie]

I found these results very interesting as the official #1 cause of kidney failure resulting in dialysis in America is diabetes followed closely by high blood pressure. There are also some interesting age correlations of these factors. That's always the interesting thing about internet polls. Only certain people are on the Internet; only a certain kind of person would look for a site called I hate dialysis; and only a certain number of those would join and even a fewer number (683 of the 8789 members) would respond. Gives you true insight into statistics.