Kidney disease progression

[Matheaford]

Don't look at it like it's the end - it really can be a happy way of life if you embrace it. I know it can be depressing, and you should find out more information to try to keep yourself in good health until you need other options. But for now, it's in your control. Your attitude makes a lot of difference in the care you receive, and you are certainly going to have sadness, but you can overcome. Don't worry about what might happen, focus on what you can do now - you are not on dialysis - you can eat better, get some exercise, and face the changes when they come.

[dac0214]

@devontexas - thank you.

@dac0214 - it's not always in your control, but you can control as much of it as you can. Many people don't take into account the emotional toll that having kidney disease does to a person because of the way our system kind of "leaves" you alone unless you are proactive about it until you get to dialysis. Keep working at it, and I hope you can delay it as much as possible. But for some, there is a point of dialysis being the best option because of the way you feel, and that is ok as well. Dialysis has a lot of options too!

I understand fully, having seen what my mom went through. Still, I look at dialysis as being an intrusive procedure, which, while necessary, also comes with side-effects that, over time, usually cause problems. My feeling is that, if diet can extend my pre-dialysis days, it will likely also extent my entire lifespan. Also, following a diet that might reduce the need for dialysis from 3x/week to 2x/week probably has life-extending properties as well. There are no panaceas here-all forms of treatment have drawbacks. None of them will allow you to live a doctor-free or medicine-free life, and sometimes the side-effects will kill you. It's like 'russian roulette', and the fewer bullets in the gun, the longer you are likely to survive.

Right now, here in the US, we have a dialysis industry that profits by having patients dialyze as often as possible, since they make money based on the number of standard treatments given. That's great for the shareholders of the company, but not so great for the patients.

[jjoldram]

Bless your heart u have the right out look on life. If God gives u lemons just make lemonaid and enjoy life while u can. Im also in 4th stage kidney failure thanks for posting it made me feel better.