Possible Kidney Disease

[Daveironbear]

I have experienced a lot of symptoms of kidney problems for the past two months. I am tired all the time, very fatigued and have shortness of breath. I generally feel like crap because of nausea. Some days I am cold and have chills. Sometimes I have to go all day long and urinate very clear urine. Some days I hardly go at all its like the Lasix that I take has no effect. My urine has blood and proteins in it. My urine is always foamy. My feet and ankles are swollen. Recently when this thing started fluid started to collect right under the skin between my knee and ankle. I had several places where the resulting blister was about 5 inches long and about 2 inches wide. I have low back pain and pain radiating down my leg. I have been treated fo Prostatitis and an enlarged prostate, it has not done any good. Last week a ultrasound indicated a rather large lesion on my right kidney and the radiologist recommended an CT scan to get further definitionto determine if it is a cyst or a tumor.
What should I ask my urologist?

[Beth Witten MSW ACSW]

The symptoms you report -- swelling in your legs, blood and protein in your urine, foamy urine -- are signs of kidney disease. You say you're seeing a urologist. It might be a good idea for you to see a nephrologist (kidney specialist). You could ask your urologist for a referral. Have you had testing of your blood for kidney function? If not, this is something that is pretty standard when someone has the symptoms you report. The results from blood tests they run can be entered into a calculator to obtain the glomerular filtration rate (GFR). The GFR level tells what percentage of kidney function you have.

A GFR of 90 or higher is normal but someone could be at risk of kidney disease because he/she has diabetes, hypertension, or because of enlarged prostate or the lesion you report.

A GFR of 15 or less means kidney function is about 15% and is classed as kidney failure. There are stages in between.

I'd also ask the urologist what is the plan for treating the enlarged prostate and the lesion on your kidney, what the side effects of that treatment are, what you need to do to protect your kidney function so far as the medicines you're taking now (or should be taking), whether you should reduce the salt in your diet to reduce the swelling in your legs, etc. You might want to look at the packet of information on chronic kidney disease on the Life Options website and read about kidney disease and treatment on Kidney School. The links to these websites are in my signature.

[Daveironbear]

Thanks for the info.

So far both the walk in clinic I saw first for this problem and The Urologist my family doctor sent me to has jumped on the Prostate. I was put on Bactrim DS for two weeks and referred back to my family doctor by the Walk-in clinic I initially saw. My family doctor found the blood and protein with a routine urine test. He did a PSA test and it came back negative. (They have a good baseline established when I was 55...there was no significant change.) So apparently there is no prostate Cancer.
The Urologist verified the blood and protein. He also determined that I Have a mildly enlarged prostate and prescribed Uroxatral. I have been on that for about a week but all it has done so far is run my blood pressure down.
The urologist has a cystoscopy scheduled in about two weeks. So far he hasn't followed up on the CT scan. Nobody has done a kidney function test.

I can get my family doctor to refer me to a kidney specialist.
The kidneys checked out good three years ago.
All of this is scary because I have diabetes, high blood pressure and was exposed to Agent Orange. I keep my blood pressure under control with medication and take, I think, Catapres to help my kidneys. My blood sugar has been erratic during the time this problem has been going on.

[Beth Witten MSW ACSW]

Guidelines for diabetics with kidney disease recommend two classes of blood pressure drugs: ACE inhibitors (ACE stands for angiotensin-converting enzyme) or ARBs (angiotensin II receptor blockers).

Here's a website that lists several ACE inhibitors:
http://health.msn.com/encyclopedia/m...ntid=100065881

Here's a website that lists several ARBs:
http://health.msn.com/encyclopedia/m...ntid=100072831

You mention Uroxatral. It is used to treat benign prostatic hypertrophy (enlarged prostate). It is an alpha blocker, which is another class of blood pressure medicines that the FDA has approved for BPH. Here's info on this drug:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/d...di/500487.html

I wouldn't be surprised that your blood sugar is bouncing around. It's possible it's related to the BPH or it could be related to the stress you're probably under. You might also ask your doctor or pharmacist if any of your drugs could be affecting your blood sugar.

[Daveironbear]

I think that I have them pointed in in the right direction. I went back to my family doctor and went over all of the symptoms that I have experienced over the past two months. They did anther urine test and there was still blood but the protein was off in the weeds. Doctor Bob said that level indicated by the test strips was so high that the blood test would surely be off the chart also. He ordered bloodwork to check it. Also he ordered a kidney function test, test for anemia, a liver function test ... the whole nine yards. He is even checking for Rocky Mountain spotted fever. So hopefully we can get to the bottom of this. Thanks so much for the information

[Daveironbear]

Yesterday I found out what part of the Kidney problem is:
I have a 68X53 mm tumor on my right kidney and a smaller 24X30 mm on my left.

[Beth Witten MSW ACSW]

That could be the cause of the problem. Do they know if the mass is benign or malignant? What are your options for treatment?

[Black]

Originally Posted by Daveironbear

Yesterday I found out what part of the Kidney problem is:
I have a 68X53 mm tumor on my right kidney and a smaller 24X30 mm on my left.

Dave, do they know for certain whether they're tumors, or could they be cysts? My husband has polycystic kidney disease, and if he only had two cysts he'd be celebrating.

[Daveironbear]

The smaller one on my left kidney is classified as a benign fatty tumor, there is a similiar one on my left adrenal gland. They have decided that the lesion on my right kidney is a large cyst. This thing has gotten quite large in the past three years. Fortunately, there is no history of polycistic disease in my family. Hopefully once they get through all of the tests maybe they can diagnose what is wrong and what to do about it.

[DoriSchatell]

Dave, have they told you what your percent kidney function is? Regardless of the cause, it's important for you to know. They may also call it your GFR (glomerular filtration rate).