End Stage Renal Failure?
Question by airtuggers: End stage renal failure?
my mother in law has lost funtion of one kidney and decreased funtion of the other. she sometimes retains large amounts of fluid in her feet, severe weight loss, and has to be treated about 8 times a year with iv meds for anemia. she also has had 2 surjurys for artery blockage.she has abused perscription meds for over 40 years, she is 66 years old. My question is does she need to be on dialiys? I am concerned that her doctor is not doing enough. what is her quality and length of life expectency ? what can we do as family members to ensure she gets the best care possible? she seems so tired and frail, we love her so much, but do not really understand the disease and how to help her. what can be done to improve her quality and length of life?
Best answer:
Answer by ricki c
you might want to read up on it on the internet,there’s lots of information out there on it.Also i would bring it to the docs attention about putting her on dialasis.See if there’s any support groups in the area that you might be able to go to,to help you better understand the disease.hope this might be helpful to you.
Answer by Kash
There are 5 stages for kidney failure. 1 being the best and 5 being the worse. When you reach 5, thats when your need to be started on dialysis. from what you have said it sounds like you mom is around end of 3 or beginning of 4.
You want to say off dialysis for as long as possible but will reach there eventually.
She has blocked arteries? she got her heart checked recently? kidney artery blockage and heart artery blockage usually goes hand in hand.
You can not blame the meds abuse to kidney failure (Meds can but usually dont) because most of the drugs are cleaned from the body via liver.
Now coming down to specific questions.
You start to retain evident amount of fluids in your body from stage 3, usually not as bigger of a deal. What is a bigger deal is, kidney failure goes hand in hand with high blood pressure.
The problem nephrologist fights all the time is how much fluid can we take out. If its too much, she will be dehydrated and weak, and if its not enough then she can go in congestive heart failure.
IV meds for anemia? it probably is just IV iron since she might not be toleration or getting enough iron in her diet.
Later she might have to take the (epogen) Shots with the IV iron, if her hemoglobin drops real low.
Dialysis over all is not good. it only removes about 10% of waste in the session and will be 3times a week each lasting 4 hrs. just imagine the quality of life there.
Also once you are on dialysis, the prognosis is 50% mortality in 5 yrs. (meaning, 50% of dialysis patients die in 5yrs on avg). i’ve seen patients living over 10 yrs on dialysis.
One of the main problem w/ dialysis is you are poked too many times in a week, you have VERY high risk of getting infection.
If the family really loves the mother that much, talk about the option of kidney transplant. One of the family member (blood match pending) can give her 1 of the kidney or have her name listed asking for donor. Now it comes down to, how good is her quality of life right now and how long do you expect her to live.
If she sees a nephrologist, then you dont have to worry about anything.
oh btw when the dialysis comes people have better quality of life on peritoneal dialysis over hemodialysis. (just know these 2 term)
Painkillers: Perils of drugs that may cause renal failure — Doctors are raising questions about some commonly prescribed medications that have been linked to organ failure in both children and adults. And one such dru…
Find More Drug Abuse Renal Failure Information…