MyKidneysAreBroken

It is an open question. I'm in pretty good shape all things considered. 6'1" 190 pounds, low LDL cholesterol. I drank but not heavily really. No drugs, no really stressful job.

When I was in the hospital, both the kidney and heart doctors were very confused about what was going on. I guess there are around seven causes of malignant hypertension and I don't have any of them. I, like an idiot, suggested genetics but they immediately were like "yea that is part of it but why you and not your sister" who has healthy blood pressure.

My cardiologist is sort of a character. During the first time he met me, he asked me if I had ordered vodka from Ukraine that was possibly watered down with antifreeze. That is how confused they are with why I developed this crazy blood pressure.

I would guess pretty low. This just happened like a month and a half ago.

Lotta good questions! I can handle these one by one. Are you a nephrologist?

do you still produce urine?

Yea. Today I've peed about 1500 mls and drank 2000 yesterday.

did anyone say there is a chance that your kidneys recover?

They thought for a while that I might have had acute kidney damage rather than chronic, but it hasn't really panned out. My creatinine has once gotten below 4 but my gfr has increased since I got out of the hospital but it is still pretty low.

did you get a kidney biopsy

Yea, the kidney they biopsied had significant scaring. That sucked because the kidney got cut during the biopsy and I had to get a blood transfusion with the hope that the cut would just heal itself. It did, I guess.

plans for something other than the vascath

Yea, I had the "vascular access" appointment to build the fistula. I would think they'd have called me by now to set up the surgery since I was cath'd on like Nov 27 and they're only supposed to be in for 90 days. The surgeon told me that if the transplant process is going super well -- as in I have a donor -- she might not have to actually do the fistula. I guess it is possible that this is happening, but I have no idea how far along any of the people who signed up to be evaluated are.

kind of weird for a 30 year old white male to fry their kidneys just from high blood pressure, especially if you've had no other previous symptoms

Yea, this is basically the story for the whole process. Luckily I went to the university hospital when I was hospitalized. None of the nephrologists understood it either. They told me that my kidney arteries haven't shrunk and neither have the kidneys themselves. My main kidney doctor told me once that "the damage to your kidneys doesn't really match up with the lack of symptoms."

I think their best bet is that I just had too high of blood pressure for too much. I never noticed, to be honest. I didn't get headaches, I didn't get nose bleeds, none of that.

that guy with the nuclear poisoning? I wonder if that would explain everything. haha

I am not technically on the transplant list yet but I will be. You have to go through a mildly long process to be evaluated for a transplant. As I mention in the op, I had secondary heart failure caused by too much fluid in me from my kidneys crapping out. So, they are making me do a stress test to make sure I don't have any other underlying heart problems. I met with my cardiologist last week and he doesn't expect anything, just wants to make sure. I have been given contingent approval pending that. It isn't a huge deal when you get on it this early on in the process because they backdate it to when you first had dialysis, which for me was in November. So I am not too worried about getting on.

In terms of wait, it is like four and a half years in Minnesota someone told me. I am an O+ blood type, which makes it more difficult.

Even though I am not on the list and haven't technically been approved yet, my transplant evaluation went super well and they told me to start referring people to them to be evaluated. I know that some people have started the process but the transplant people won't tell me anything about their status.

There has also been a bit of press locally and nationally about live kidney donation -- some guy wore a tshirt to Disney world and got like 100k shares on facebook. So, it seems like awareness about this sort of thing might be ticking up. It is highly likely it will be my sister unless she gives up without telling me lol.