I'm a 27 year old man and have a family member who was a type 1 when he was 30ish, my hb1ac came back as 32 which is not what you'd class as diabetic, but I also had my kidney function tested (GFR test) and it was 90 which is only just normal but quite low for someone of my age and sex from what I've read on the internet. I'm always weeing and sometimes can't control the passage of urine when I'm desperate. I'm scared that I might have diabetes that isn't being detected. I'm wondering if others here had their kidneys tested before being diagnosed and what their results were?
did you have kidney problems before you were diagnosed?
- Thread starter confused1
- Start Date
A number of things can affect your GFR like the particular you had before being tested. I would talk with your gp and get it re tested first.
Pat
Diabetes Plan
http://www.diabetesplan.org
Pat
Diabetes Plan
http://www.diabetesplan.org
I'm not quite sure what you mean? I didn't know my "normal" GFR before the test, if that's what you meant. The test showed I had a GFR of greater than 90 ml/min but no indication of the value, so if the person is a 90 year old woman or a 20 year old man, that doesn't factor in apparently. I do drink a lot of water and wee more than normal, but the gp was dismissing and going off the lab definition of normal. The lab also said I was "low" on haematocrit 39%, normal for adult male is 42-54%, but the gp still said it was normal. Kidney problems lead to anaemia, what causes kidney problem? Diabetes and high blood pressure which I don't have. So I still have questions about diabetes/kidney problem.
What took you to the doctor in the first place? I would go back and have it explained. Doctors sometimes don't bother discussing with patients. But its your health and you need to know if there is anything you can do about it.
phoenix
Expert
- Messages
- 5,671
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Pump
Your estimated gfr was over 90 so your kidney function was within the normal range. There is no kidney disease unless there is some other abnormality. In fact If the result said above 90 then you don't actually know how much above it was.
The calculation used takes both your age and gender into account . Without some other abnormality your wouldn't have kidney disease if it were at 60ml/min .
( abnormalities include protein in your urine or you have some other marker of damaged kidneys)http://www.renal.org/whatwedo/InformationResources/CKDeGUIDE/Stage1-2CKD.aspx
The first sign of possible kidney disease in someone with diabetes is likely to be protein in the urine.
People with diabetes develop diabetic kidney disease as a result of long periods with high glucose levels. Sometimes someone with T2 has had high glucose levels for a long time before diagnosis and may have problems when first diagnosed but the
quicker onset of T1means that there is not likely to be any damage to kidneys at diagnosis.
http://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/diabetes.cfm
If you are still worried about your symptoms then you should discuss it with your doc.
dawnmc said:
That's the nature of the healthcare system in the UK, we don't directly pay for services and have little bargaining power when it comes to decisions made by doctors affecting our health. Often we are forced to whine, pester and beg for doctors to act on our behalves. We are made to feel ashamed for taking up the doctor's time and leave in haste. If we visit them too often because we're concerned about our health and want answers, we're thought of as hypochondriacs and thought to be abusers of the system.
I for one, don't trust my GP with my healthcare. I say this because i've often got action and answers by begging. I'm sick of them, I've ordered an expensive private blood test to test for everything else that the GP wasn't willing to, only then may I finally have answers to my health.
phoenix said:
Thankyou for your valuable information. I had a creatinine value of 93umol/L and an estimated GFR (MDRD) of 89.9 ml/min, just using the online calculators which use the MDRD formula, I have had various values between 85-90 ml/min. One indicates I might have stage 2 chronic kidney disease based on this value. The normal value the lab test result gave was provided in brackets as >90 ml/min, my value was therefore only borderline in the normal range. In my opinion, this warrants more investigation, but the doctor was dismissive even when I told him about my symptoms. I'm having a private blood test to confirm/disprove my doubts.
