I'm asking this here because I don't have the time now to look for a human health forum that's still active, the one I used to post on is pretty dead. I figure someone here has to know about this stuff. Or maybe someone could direct me to a human health forum that's still active. I know about feline kidney disease from experience and I assume it's similar to humans.
According to my father's lab results for the past two or more years, he's in stage 3 kidney disease. No one has told him of this. Is this standard practice?
Recently, my uncle died from kidney disease/failure and the doctors never told him or his children until he was actively dying and not lucid. His records indicate he was in stage 3 seven years ago, but either the doctors did not know how to read the lab results or chose to omit the results from the records that are given to patients at every appointment. One doctor even noted that the kidneys were normal. And now we know how my uncle ended up on hospice care at the end of June. The entire family, including him and his children thought it was odd that he qualified for hospice care but was not dying. So something was in his records somewhere, but was never told to him or his children.
So I'm worried about my father. I'd like info about this so my mom or I can talk to his doctors (we have permission).
Here are a few results from his recent fasting lab:
Glucose: 121 (Normal=65 - 99 mg/dL)
Creatinine: 152 (Normal=0.76 - 1.27 mg/dL)
eGFR: 46 (Normal=>59 mL/min/1.73)
CO2: 29 (Normal=20 - 29 mmol/L)
He has not been told he is diabetic and I don't know if he is. He complains of headaches, dizziness upon standing, swelling in the ankles (he is now on Lasix), shortness of breath and just plain feeling crappy. He has also been anemic for several years and previous tests could not find a cause. He hasn't been checked for Iron and B12 deficiency or anything else in more than four years, but he was checked in the past. He has also had a partially collapsed lung for almost 3 years but none of his doctors told him of this. I found out when I went through his online health records and looked at his xray results.
I would like to hear how doctors should be handling this. At least I know something is going on and he may die in a few years from this. I wish the family had known about my uncle. We would've liked to been able to record family history and stories. There's so much old family history I wanted to know. We would've liked to at least say goodbye.
I would truly appreciate any advice or help anyone can give me. Thank you.
According to my father's lab results for the past two or more years, he's in stage 3 kidney disease. No one has told him of this. Is this standard practice?
Recently, my uncle died from kidney disease/failure and the doctors never told him or his children until he was actively dying and not lucid. His records indicate he was in stage 3 seven years ago, but either the doctors did not know how to read the lab results or chose to omit the results from the records that are given to patients at every appointment. One doctor even noted that the kidneys were normal. And now we know how my uncle ended up on hospice care at the end of June. The entire family, including him and his children thought it was odd that he qualified for hospice care but was not dying. So something was in his records somewhere, but was never told to him or his children.
So I'm worried about my father. I'd like info about this so my mom or I can talk to his doctors (we have permission).
Here are a few results from his recent fasting lab:
Glucose: 121 (Normal=65 - 99 mg/dL)
Creatinine: 152 (Normal=0.76 - 1.27 mg/dL)
eGFR: 46 (Normal=>59 mL/min/1.73)
CO2: 29 (Normal=20 - 29 mmol/L)
He has not been told he is diabetic and I don't know if he is. He complains of headaches, dizziness upon standing, swelling in the ankles (he is now on Lasix), shortness of breath and just plain feeling crappy. He has also been anemic for several years and previous tests could not find a cause. He hasn't been checked for Iron and B12 deficiency or anything else in more than four years, but he was checked in the past. He has also had a partially collapsed lung for almost 3 years but none of his doctors told him of this. I found out when I went through his online health records and looked at his xray results.
I would like to hear how doctors should be handling this. At least I know something is going on and he may die in a few years from this. I wish the family had known about my uncle. We would've liked to been able to record family history and stories. There's so much old family history I wanted to know. We would've liked to at least say goodbye.
I would truly appreciate any advice or help anyone can give me. Thank you.