Brian Sina
Dr. Roberts
05/03/10
Health 6.1
Kidney Failure and its Effects When we talk about serious and life threatening disease a couple things come to mind. We think about cancer, heart attacks, AIDS, and even diabetes, but one thing always slips our minds. The Encyclopedia Britannica’s latest estimate has nearly 130,000 Americans suffering from kidney failure and its strain on their lifestyle. Several thousand people a year die because of kidney failure, yet we still are not worried or warned about the disease. The goal of this essay is to inform myself and the reader’s about the serious effects of this potentially fatal disease. When your kidneys fail the body is put at serious risk. The kidneys are considered the filters of the body. They remove the waste and concentrate from the urine and they preserve electrolytes while doing this. Without them, the poisonous waste remains in the body and we wouldn’t be able to live for more than four days. While we have two kidneys all that we need to live is one; unfortunately when one fails the other usually follows in the same path. Kidney failure is unique because there are so many causes. Potentially anything you do unhealthy to your body can lead to kidney problems. Whether its cigarettes, alcohol abuse, improper diet, drugs, or even just a simple injury can stop the blood flow to the kidney and cause them to fail. This is one of the reasons that kidney failure is so common and dangerous. We speak a lot about being proactive in your health and this is a perfect example. Kidney failure is generally preventable if we go for a regular check up and eat healthy. Just by practicing simple healthy habits we can avoid this terrible disease. The Los Angeles Times reports that thousands die of kidney failure before they even know they have it, because they don’t go for checkups or blood tests regularly. Once diagnosed with kidney failure a patient’s life is instantly changed. One must go on a new type of diet, called a renal diet. Kidney’s control the fluids that leave the body. As your kidneys continue to fail they lose the ability to regulate the removal of liquid from the body. Because of this, A patient on a renal diet a patient must control his liquid intake to about 35 oz. of liquid a day. When the kidney’s fail, the body has a hard time balancing its phosphorous and calcium levels. These two things help strengthen bones and muscles. The amount of phosphorous increases and the amounts of calcium decrease. To fix this problem the body begins to take calcium out of the bones which balances the levels but makes the bones very weak and can lead to joint pains and broken bones. So a patient on a renal diet cannot take in too much phosphorous. Foods with high levels of phosphorous include cheese, liver, peanut butter, and sardines. In order to control the levels of calcium and phosphorous most patients take 2,000mg of Phoslo (Calcium Acetate) with each meal. This will raise the level of calcium in the bones, which will lead to an equal calcium-phosphorous count. The kidneys also control the levels of potassium. Potassium helps keep your nerves and muscles working properly, if your potassium levels get to high it can lead to an irregular heartbeat or stop your heart completely. Patients with kidney failure cannot eat foods that contain high levels of potassium such as: potatoes, fruits and chocolate. Levels of protein are also regulated by the kidneys. Protein is needed to maintain muscles, aid in building resistance to infections, and repair and replace body tissue. When your body breaks down protein, waste products called urea are formed. When the kidneys fail levels of urea build up in the bloodstream causing your bloodstream to slow down and making you sick. The patients must try to avoid foods with high levels of protein including: Meat, poultry, milk products and eggs. Sodium is used for many bodily functions such as controlling muscle contractions, balancing fluids, and controlling blood pressure. Healthy kidneys remove excess sodium in urine. As the kidney’s break down you will begin to accumulate sodium and fluids in your body. Keeping this fluid in your body may cause swelling of various body parts including: your eyes, hands and ankles. The patient must also try to limit his sodium intake. Foods with a high level of sodium include: Cheese, potato chips, and bacon. So we see that a patient with kidney failure not only suffers intense pain but has to change his normal diet to something completely abnormal. Dialysis is a procedure that is a substitute for many of the normal duties of the kidneys. Dialysis allows individuals to live productive and useful lives, even though their kidneys no longer work adequately. In the United States, there are over 200,000 people who use dialysis techniques on an ongoing basis. Dialysis helps the body by performing the functions of failed kidneys. The kidney has many roles. An essential job of the kidney is to regulate the body's fluid balance. It does this by controlling the amount of urine that is removed on a daily basis. Another major duty of the kidney is to remove the waste products that the body produces throughout the day. As the body functions, the cells use energy. The operation of the cells produces waste products that must be removed from the body. When these waste products are not removed adequately, they build up in the body. An elevation of waste products, as measured in the blood, is called "azotemia." When waste products accumulate they cause a sick feeling throughout the body called "uremia." Dialysis acts in place of the failed kidneys and a patient can live in dialysis until a kidney transplant is found. There are two types of Dialysis hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. The more common one being hemodialysis. When the kidneys first fail the doctors graft two veins in the arm together, called the Fistula. Than the patient sits in a chair and a nurse inserts two needles into the fistula. One takes out the blood sends it to the machine to purify it, while the other one sends the new, cleaned blood back into the body. The patient does this procedure on a schedule 3 times a week for 2 ½ to 4 ½ hours each time. During the treatment the patient can do whatever he likes in the chair whether it be sleeping, eating, or reading.
In peritoneal dialysis a patient puts a catheter in the peritoneal cavity. The liquid from the cavity is than drained and goes into the bag. When the bag is full the patient must remove the bag and place a new bag up the cavity and rest the catheter in their underwear. This procedure takes around one half hour to complete and must be done 6 to 7 times a day.
If the pain of dialysis wasn’t enough patients have another problem to deal with. With dialysis taking up five hours a day three days a week, how can patients on dialysis get a job? How can a father support his family if he is on dialysis, working two days a week certainly is not enough. Kidney disease is more to deal with than just the diets and procedures, because even when it is not a dialysis day the patient is affected. Another big issue with kidney failure is that it can lead to many other diseases including: Damage to the heart or the nervous system, End-stage kidney disease, high blood pressure, and loss of blood in the intestines.
While life on dialysis is generally an option for about 25-30 years, all kidney failure victims are looking for one thing, a transplant. In order for someone to be able to receive a kidney transplant from someone else both the donor and the recipient must be healthy enough for the surgery and the two month recovery period. Also, the blood types much match. If someone is blood type O they can only receive from O, but O can give to anyone (Universal Donor). With blood type A you can receive from A and O. B can receive from B and O. Blood type AB can receive from anyone (universal receiver.) Also besides blood type matching the blood tissue must also match. There are three types of people who can donate a kidney to victims. The first type is called a cadaveric donor. A cadaver donor kidney is one that comes from a person who has just died. The family of this person has given permission for the kidneys, and possible other organs, to be donated for someone who needs a transplant. After the transplant the receiver would need to go to temporary dialysis and would need to get the surgery whenever the person dies, not when the patient wants.
Another type of donor is called a live unrelated donor. That is a kidney donated from someone who is not related to the person like a spouse or a friend. This is the second best type of donor that one can get from. Most people do not need temporary dialysis after this type of donor, and you can plan out when you want the surgery.
The last type is called a live related donor. This is donated from a blood related relative like mother, father, sister or brother. This is the best type of donation one can receive. A kidney from a relative doesn’t need temporary dialysis, can plan the surgery, but the advantage is that this is a much better match and has less chance of the body rejecting it. Once a patient gets a transplant he can live with a donor kidney for up to 20 years, when that kidney fails the patient either goes back to dialysis or looks for another donor.
When we were given this assignment we were asked to pick a topic relevant to us. A little over two years ago my father’s leg was bothering him, but being a stubborn person he did nothing about it. He just lived with the pain and continued with his life. One day the pain got very serious so he decided to go to the emergency room. When they took him into triage they took his blood pressure and they instantly knew that this was more than just a leg problem. They took him in for tests and said that his kidneys shrunk to 4% of the size they should be, and had he waited any longer he may not be here with us today. Since that day my dad has gone to dialysis three times a week for five hours a day. While he is working on a transplant it is difficult. With approximately 55,000 people waiting on a transplant and around 18,000 transplants taking place a year, this is a difficult waiting period that he must sit and suffer through. In the book Kidney failure: The facts, Mr. Cameron gives advice to patients on dialysis waiting for a transplant. He explains how the transplant will bring your life back to normal and how it is a high reward worth the wait on dialysis. The goal of this is to keep the patients high-spirited and hopeful; my dad says this is what gets him by sometimes, just knowing that it will all be better soon.
This paper really helped me learn a lot about what my father and family is going through right now. It made me aware of the difficulties he is facing on a day-to-day basis. It also encourages me to be more proactive about my health and stop practicing bad habits. This has really opened my eyes to what taking care of yourself can do for you, and I hope it has a serious impact on my life and my habits, so I can prevent any of this before it even starts.

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[ 2 ]. Encyclopedia Britannica K-L volume #11
[ 3 ]. That Damn Dialysis by Cindy Barclay
[ 4 ]. Mayoclinic.com
[ 5 ]. MCW.edu(Medical college of Wisconsin)
[ 6 ]. Medicinenet.com
[ 7 ]. Review for hemodialysis for nurses and dialysis personnel.
[ 8 ]. AARP.com
[ 9 ]. Handbook of Kidney Transplantation, Fourth edition by Gabriel M Danovitch
[ 10 ]. Wikipedia.org
[ 11 ]. Kidney failure: The facts. By J. Stewart Cameron