Could I have a kidney problem?

[kclod]

Hello. I've been doing some research on my own after my symptoms/test have not lead my Doctor to a definite diagnosis. I have large puffy bags under my eyes (even when I am well rested), I have to get up several times during the night to urinate (doc believes this is from a small uterine fibriod), a have a rash behind my ears (for over a year and have tried several prescription creams with no success), I am tired after only a few hours of being awake in the morning and overall I feel lack of energy, I sometimes have shortness of breath and even when I am going to sleep I have to breath through my mouth to feel that I am getting enough air. I do get migraines and lately I have been waking up with painful headaches. My doc did order a bllod test to check my thyroid and results were fine. My blood pressure is also fine.Does is seem that I could have a kidney problem? If so, what tests to I request in order to find out if this is the case?
Thank you so much for your time and assistance.

[Beth Witten MSW ACSW]

Some of the symptoms that you report could indicate kidney problems, but they could be caused by other problems as well. Therefore, I'd ask your doctor to run a CHEM-20 (also called an SMA-20). The results from this blood test should help your doctor diagnose whether you have kidney problems or some other problem. Here's information about this test, how it's done, and it lists the normal values for the test results.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003468.htm

If you find out your have kidney problems, you might want to look at the rest of this website, www.kidneyschool.org, and www.homediaysis.org.