Dialysis: Kidney Failure Symptoms
As the healthy kidney functioning declines, kidney failure symptoms begin to appear. These kidney failure symptoms often do not show up until the functioning declines below 30% of normal functioning. At that point, the systems may include some vague problems like fatigue, frequent headaches and a loss of appetite. Additionally, sleep problems may start to occur at this relatively early stage of the kidney disease progression.
Kidney Failure Symptoms Basics
As the disease progresses and kidney functioning drops below 15% of normal kidney functioning, kidney failure symptoms begin to get more serious. These more serious kidney failur symptoms can include itchy skin, frequent urination, vomiting, water retention, skin darkening and muscle cramps. Because some chronic kidney disease patients do not have symptoms until this relatively late stage, for this reason, doctors may need to screen you for it long before symptoms begin to appear.
This preliminary and proactive testing is particularly important if you are at high risk for kidney disease due to other conditions. These conditions might include such other diseases such as diabetes or high blood pressure. To test for kidney dysfunction, blood and urine tests measure changing levels of bloodstream chemicals.
These tests determine how well the kidneys work. Specifically, the tests determine the levels of certain chemicals, such as urea and creatinine. These chemicals increase as kidney function declines. Additionally, ultrasound scanning can look for physical abnormalities of the kidney and find damage that way.