Chronic Kidney Disease

[Inarecentsurvey]

Does anyone have experience of kidney failure in the elderly? My mother's kidneys are failing now -she can't have dialysis due to age & other factors so we've been focusing on keeping her kidney function going. Unfortunately I've just heard that her kidney function is very low now. She might be able to have a transfusion to help with anaemia & weakness & her blood pressure is monitored regularly but is there anything else I should be thinking of? Many thanks.

Hi,

Sorry no one responded to you. I could have written your post myself. My mum has kidney disease - stage 5 and she has also experienced respiratory failure twice. She is in hospital at the moment after recurrent episodes of struggling to breathe (she has been in for months this time with lots of good and bad periods). Her last episode was last week and antibiotics and steroids were started. The doctors have said they don't think she will pull through. Her kidneys are functioning at 8 just now (taken a hit from her baseline of 13/14) despite her infection markers all being ok. She has a lot of swelling and at times struggling to breathe. She has become increasingly drowsy.

The thing is the doctors have said to us several times in the past that she is critical but each time she has fought back. The difference this time is that there is no infection to fix and her kidneys and lungs aren't improving.

Can anyone share their experience of how kidney failure progresses? Are these the types of things you see?

OP I hope your mum is ok.