This week my father who is a type 2 diabetic of 20 years was diagnosed with stage four kidney failure. Anyone else on this site have kidney damage due to diabetes?
Is it your a1c that determines whether or not you get kidney damage?
My mother has been on dialysis for the past 8 years. It was combination of 60+ years of hypertension, 30+ years of diabetes, severe preeclampsia with 3, and multi-major surgeries that eventually placed her in ESRD. She maintained a decent A1C; however, the long-term complications of hypertensions and diabetes (as always) that cause the damaged–that showed up in lab tests–levels of creatinine, microalbuminuria, and the filtering rate of the kidneys.
When her nephrologist did an ultrasound of her kidneys for a baseline he said they were abnormally small for an adult woman (a congenital defect), so she’s been working at a disadvantage her entire adult life.
It was a long process for her before she was actually placed on dialysis. The doctor adjusted her diabetic diet to a renal diet and monitored her labs. She was still operating at 13% kidney function before she was placed on dialysis 3 x a week in Dec. 2007 (she was diagnosed with low kidney function in 1995).
She had a second heart attack in Dec. 2007 which required her to be placed on dialysis to removed the angiogram dye to be efficiently from her body without straining her kidneys. If she hadn’t had the heart attack, the nephrologist said she probably would still functioning on her own at 13%. The doctor cannot place a person on dialysis until they go below a kidney function threshold (normally < 10%) or have special circumstances.
I hope this helps. Let me know if I can answer any additional questions.
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Thank you so much for your reply has given my dad so much hope in terms of holding off dialysis!
Anytime Lil_MaMa! I’m glad I could be of some help. Mom’s had a rough 2015 but it’s all due to her diabetes, not her kidneys or dialysis which has been good. She went in for rehab due to severe osteoarthritis in both hips and in the rehab center her blood sugar level dropped and she went into a coma. She’s having to battle back from it.