ITS NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM (Kidney Failure in general)

Member Name: jingles

Product:	Kidney Failure in general
Date:	04/09/01 (1319 review reads)
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Advantages: No advantages

Disadvantages: The fact that organ donnation makes transplants possible

I have thought quite a bit about writing this opinion as l want to try and do the subject justice. I have experienced living with kidney failure and its treatment second hand - my father suffered from this.

I cannot remember a specific time when daddy's kidneys failed - now that l know more he must have been suffering symptoms, but as kids we were not told of the seriousness of the matter. He worked in a stressful job and his blood pressure was high - since l have now looked at the background of kidney failure l realise this is a cause of the failure. I can remember though dialysis beginning from when l was about 15 (lm 27 now) so it has been on going over the past decade.

In my title l have stated that it is not the end of the world and its not - we lived as any normal family did except my dad had to carry out treatments at certain times of the day - apart from that he was as any normal dad - horsing around with the kids and my mum still threatened us with telling him about our misbehaviour! I never have thought of him as having as dibilating diease.

So for those of you not in the know l decided to give you a brief outline of what exactly kidney failure is, the causes, and the treatments.

WHAT DOES A KIDNEY DO?

A healthy kidney will act as your body's filtering system, in that blood passes through the kidneys so that it can be cleaned and waste products removed. These waste products are then sent to the bladder so that they can exit the body.

KIDNEY FAILURE

Should a kidney fail, it is likely that to some extent they can still produce urine although not as effectively. Then these waste products are still to be found in the blood stream and so circulating in your body.

CAUSES

Kidney failure has a variety of causes including:

Diabetes
High Blood Pressure
Kidney inflamation - glomerulonephritis
Childhood scarring
Obstructions

SYMPTOM
S

Kidney failure is often a gradual process as less waste is filtered from the blood stream. The general symptoms of it are:

Generally feeling ill
Letharigic - and lack of interest
Tirdness
Shortness of breath
Change in appettite
Sickness and nauesa
Loss of libido
Itching
Swelling of legs

When l think back l can remember my dad with an itch as well as his legs especially his ankles swelling.

TREATMENT

Once dyagnosed treatment of kidney failure dependent on its stage can take a variety of methods including:

DIET - this can help reduce the levels of waste produced and so the severity of the symptoms. The renal dietitan will tailor a diet specific to each individual patient's needs.

Medication - again this is patient specific and the renal unit will decide the best combination of drugs suited to the patient in question.

Dialysis - this is an artifical way to get rid of the toxins which build up in the bloodstream. It is not always necessary depended on the severity of the kidney failure.

There are 2 forms of dialysis.

HAEMODIALYSIS - the blood is cleaned outside the body, throught a machine. This is the most commonly known form.

PERITONEAL - this is the cleaning of the blood stream from inside the body. A less well known form of dialysis.

My father used the peritoneal form of dialysis using a system known as CAPD or Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis. A bag of dialysis fluid is drained into the peritoneal cavity via a catheter (which was previously inserted in an operation). This fluid is left in the body for 4 to 6 hours and then it absorbs waste products from the blood. It is then drained out. The process is carried out 4 times a day and takes 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

The process is one carried out by the patient themselves and is less restrictive that being hooked up to a machine. Th
e process is carried out at home or at work. My dad did not stop working and his work place were very understanding in setting up a medical room for him to carry out treatments. I can recall a family holiday to Butlins and dad was able to organise delivery of his medication (there was a lot!!) from Baxters and the centre was more than helpful to cater for his needs. Life really did not end!

The most effective treatment is that of TRANSPLANTATION - over 1500 transplants are carried out in the UK every year and the sucess rate of such is higher that any other organ transplantation. Patients are placed on a waiting list (l remember dad had a pager) although it could be up to 2 years before you even get a call and a suitable kidney is available.

Dad had 2 transplants - the first failed and the second is working fine. I do remember he did have false alarms though - his pager would go - pandimonium would break out - my mum and dad would head for Belfast - 75 miles from the family home only to return home 8 hours later after a lot of hanging about - another patient was more suitable. It can be soul destroying.

Transplants do not come with a lifetime guarentee and so may fail days or years later. Patients are also on drugs for the rest of thier lives to ensure the transplant has a better chance of survival and does not reject.

I got a lot of information from an extremely helpful web site www.kidneypatientguide.org.uk for those of you interested or affected. It is a serious disease and can be fatal but there is home out there, my dad has had a transplant and is now enjoying life even more than before. Medical science can do wonderous things theses days but l would everyone to carry donor cards - you could help save lives even when you are gone.

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