What Are The Symptoms Of Kidney Failure?

What are the symptoms of kidney failure?I have a kidney transplant for 26 yrs. so far but my blood pressure has been a little bit up like 110/90 but it's always been this way. My cholesterol has been going up but my doctor say it's because I've been taking Prednizone all my life. Out of curiosity, I just want to know what is the most that a kidney can last. I have my mom's kidney because I have no sibblings.
What are the symptoms of kidney failure?
According to statistics, by 10 to 15 years, about 50% of transplanted kidneys are still functional. Rates improve if the kidney comes from a living relative.
The signs and symptoms of kidney failure vary, depending on whether the failure is acute or chronic.
Acute kidney failure occurs when your kidneys suddenly stop filtering waste products from your blood. The signs and symptoms may include:
Fluid retention
Bleeding, often in your stomach or intestines
Confusion
Seizures
Coma
Chronic kidney failure
According to the National Kidney Foundation, almost 20 million adult Americans have chronic kidney disease and another 20 million are at risk of developing it. Over time, chronic kidney failure can lead to congestive heart failure, weak bones, stomach ulcers and damage to the central nervous system. Unfortunately, signs and symptoms often don't appear until irreversible damage has occurred. They include:
High blood pressure
Unexplained weight loss
Anemia
Nausea or vomiting
Malaise or fatigue
Headaches that seem unrelated to any other cause
Decreased urine output
Decreased mental sharpness
Muscle twitches and cramps
Bleeding in the intestinal tract
Yellowish-brown cast to the skin
Persistent itching
Sleep disorders
End-stage renal disease

Tell You More about Oliguria and Acute Renal Failure

When we heard about the word Acute Renal Failure (ARF), we will usually think it as a rather horrible disease. Actually, if you get the disease, what you need to do first is to calm down and try to know more about the disease. Only when you know better about it, can you find and receive effective treatment in time.
Maybe you have already known that the Acute Renal Failure (ARF) can be divided into three stages, say, the Stage of Oliguria, Diuresis and Recovery. If you are newly diagnosed with this disease, it may possibly in the stage of Oliguria. To know Oliguria, we should firstly have some knowledge of urine. For normal people, the urine volume in a day (24h) is 1500-2000ml. When the urine volume is less than 400ml/d (or 17ml/h), it can be called Oliguria, and when less than 100ml/d (or 4ml/h), Anuria.
How can you know which stage you are in? Now let's have a look at the clinical manifestations of Acute Renal Failure.
1. Oliguria always appears after the precursory signs and will last for 2-4 weeks.
2. You may have a series of malaise such as poorer appetite, nausea, vomit, diarrhea, hiccup, dizziness, headache, short breath and even spasm and coma.
3. You will have Metabolic Acidosis, which is caused by the accumulation of metabolic wastes in your body; the value of serum creatinine (SCr) and Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN) will rise as well.
4. Disordered electrolyte appears, including hyperkalemia, low serum sodium, high serum phosphate and hypocalcemia, etc. In some cases even the cardiac arrest may appear.
5. Excessive water will remain in human body, so encephaledema or pneumonedema may appear.
In the Acute Renal Failure, renal function decreases progressively and the damages on kidney is deteriorate rather quickly, so there will be various complications during the process. Some common ones are introduced here for your reference.
A. Infection.
It is the most common complication of Acute Renal Failure in the stage of Oliguria, and it is usually seen in the cases of Hypercatabolism ARF which is aroused by severe trauma and burn.
B. Diseases in cardiovascular system.
Arrhythmia, Heart Failure, Pericarditis and Hypertension are usually seen.
C. Diseases in nervous system.
The symptoms are headache, somnolence, spasm, coma and epilepsy. Those are all caused by the retention of metabolic wastes and disordered electrolyte and acid-base balance.
D. Diseases in digestive system.
You may have asitia, nausea and vomit, etc. Sometimes bleeding will appear due to the erosion of the gastrointestinal mucosa.
E. Diseases in the blood system.
Due to the severe decrease of renal function, the quantity of erythropoietin (EPO) will decrease therewith, so Anemia will appear.
F. Electrolyte disturbance & Metabolic Acidosis.
These are the most serious complications of Acute Renal Failure, including Hyperkalemia and Hyponatremia and serious Acidosis.
So far, you may get more detailed information about the stage of Oliguria in Acute Renal Failure (ARF). During this period, the most significant thing is to have effective treatment as soon as possible after the diagnosis and control the progressive deterioration of the condition, and also, the prevention of complications matter a lot in this stage because they are so severe that will even lead to death. If you wonder about the treatment, or just want to know a little more, you are welcome to talk with the consultant online or leave a message to kidneyfailure@hotmail.com .
Learn more how to prevent acute renal failure

Stages of Acute Renal Failure

Acute Renal Failure refers to the kidneys fail in a very short time. There are many causes for Acute Renal Failure. In clinical practices, the progression of Acute Renal Failure is generally the same and is divided into oliguric phase, diuretic phase and recovery phase.
1. Oliguric phase
At this phase, the kidneys are damaged seriously and the urine production ability of kidneys declines. Therefore, in a short time, the urine volume declines in a short time. Generally speaking, the urine output volume is less than 400 ml in 24 hours. Moreover, various kinds of toxins accumulate in body, which can lead to systemic toxic symptoms like vomit, nausea, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, hypertension, heart failure, acidosis, electrolyte disturbance and so on. For weak immunity, it is very likely to lead to various kinds of infections and even threaten the patients’ lives. Oliguric phase usually lasts for 7~14 days. The longer this phase lasts, the worse the prognosis of the disease will be. In this phase, the patients need to control the food and water intake, it will benefit the recovery of their disease.
2. Diuretic phase
In Diuretic phase, the urine output in 24 hours can exceed 400 ml and even 2500 ml. This phase can last for 1~3 weeks. When diuretic phase starts, as the glomerular filtration rate does not recover and the concentration ability of renal tubule is very poor so the urine output is usually very high. Moreover, the levels of urea nitrogen, creatinine and potassium in blood will increase further. Moreover, water and electrolyte disturbance, infections and so on are also very common in this phase. In this phase, the patients should improve their nutrition and increase the water intake, which is good to the recovery of their disease.
3. Recovery phase
In recovery phase, the renal tubule grows again and the glomerular filtration rate recovers normal as well as the urea nitrogen level and creatinine level decline to the normal range.
For the patients with Kidney Disease, if their kidneys fail rapidly in a short time, they should take the best therapeutic opportunity to receive treatment. In this way, they will be able to decline the kidney damage to the biggest extent.