We went in for our 6-month labwork yesterday, and by this morning, it was already posted on the online patient portal; so I spent most of the morning comparing the results from last fall’s tests and also the ones from a year ago in January. When we changed doctors, the first thing that they did was do a completely lab work-up, and then the doctor went over the results with us and gave us a sheet that shows what the parameters are for each test and where we fall within those parameters. I have either improved, or stayed the same in almost all of the tests, which pleases me a lot ! My A1c has gone down from 5.5 a year ago to 5.1 now, my blood sugar is down from just over 100 to 87 now, and my kidney function is still improving. They told me that once you have chronic kidney failure that it can never be cured, and that it would get worse each year. You are supposed to be rated at over 60, but I have been in stage 3 kidney failure for several years now, and was down to about 37 a year ago. Below 30, and you are into stage 4. However, with my careful eating of healthy foods, I am now up to 47, which is almost out of stage 3 and into stage 2; so I am definitely improving, and hoping to be even better in another six months when they check this fall. They told me that the heart failure could not be cured either, but my heart slowly went up from 23%ef to now about 55%ef, which means that I am no longer in heart failure. It is things like this that keep me determined to do whatever it takes to take care of my health !
So glad to hear of your progress! You are living proof the kidney "failure" can improve. Was the kidney issue due to diabetes complications or something else? It sounds as though your sugar is getting more controlled as well. Congratulations!!
The kidney failure is due to the medicines that they put me on for the a-fib and heart failure. At least the blood thinner, and I think some of the other heart meds are bad for the kidneys as well because they have to filter everything. Plus, when the heart failure was so bad, I think that also made the kidneys work harder, and vice-versa. I have never had any problems with diabetes, but it is good to see the numbers going down anyway, even though I have always been in the “normal” range. My heart doctor changed over my blood thinner a few months ago because he said that the Xarelto was harder on the kidneys. He wanted to put me on apixaban (Eloquis) but for some reason my insurance would not cover that, so he put me on Savaysa, which he said was the next best one as far as kidney damage. Since this is a permanent medication for me most likely, it means I have to work even harder to overcome the kidney damage from that. I am hoping to get well enough that I can be off of all (or at least most) of the heart meds at some point. There seems to be a lot of scientific evidence that a plant-based diet can overcome the heart disease, so that is what I have been reading and studying about.
Oh you're so brave and so stoical and so knowledgeable and pro-active about your condition, I'm constantly amazed by you.. ( sorry, that isn't supposed to sound patronising ) .... I'm very pleased for you about your results Yvonne, may it continue on...
Yvonne I will share with you here from the US I recently got mine back also head to toe scans and total blood work ups, showing now 2-1/2 years cancer free after 3 surgeries, 1 more check per my request late this year to go.
I had a friend they put on Xarelto for afib, and he almost immediately started peeing blood (hematuria) and ended up in the ER for it. I know warfarin is a real pain in the butt, but I think it is easier on the kidneys. If I had the problem, I don't really know what I would do. Good luck with everything. Did they ever figure out what was causing the atrial fibrillation? If they could treat the afib, they might not have to worry about you anticoagulant status. Boy afib and heart failure....
Thank you, @Don Alaska ! Actually, they did a procedure for the a-fib and I do not have that now. I had one procedure done in 2014 and that worked until last year, and I had to have another one done last summer, and hopefully that will take care of it this time. I am not sure how I got the a-fib; but I believe it was from a really bad car accident that I was in when I got hit by a drunk driver doing over 100mph in his 3/4 ton pickup truck. It was on I-5 near Seattle, and I was driving a little Yugo; so I was totally being watched over by my guardian angels. After that, I started having the a-fib episodes, and they gradually turned into a permanent thing. Warfarin has a lot of problems with it, too, and I think that I would rather take my chances with the Savaysa right now, and maybe one of these days I won’t need to take it either. Since I am not in a-fib or in heart failure, at least right now, things are looking up, and I am optimistic that it might get even better if I keep focusing on taking good care of myself. I eat so many greens that my blood still clots easy, even with the blood thinner, at least most of the time; but I am still careful about accidentally getting a cut and bleeding.
Yeah, I know the warfarin has problems...eating greens is one of them. All the blood tests is another. I was just referring to the kidney issues. If you are getting better on your current meds, keep up the good work!
@Yvonne Smith You are living proof that changing the way you eat and exercising can and does improve health issues...even the very serious ones that you have. You not only do the research, you make the changes necessary and stick to them...while all the while doing more research to make your health the best it can be. And to help Bobby's be that way too. And you are always willing to pass along your health wisdom to all of us so we can have better health too. Thanks Yvonne. You are an inspiration to all of us.