Saturday, October 19, 2013

Acute Renal Failure: What Are The Symptoms?

There are many causes to Kidney Diseases. They range from Diabetes to Cirrhosis of the Liver. More This post is about the later. The proper medical term for this condition is Hepatorenal Syndrome. This is caused by Acute Liver Failure, Alcohol Hepatitis or Cirrhosis of the liver. Below you will learn the symptoms that go along with this disease or condition. The end result is most commonly death.

Conditions that arise from this type of condition include blood pressure that rapidly decreases every time the patient moves or shifts. Changes in their mental states, confusion or delirium. The patient may exhibit signs of dementia. Muscle jerks or twitches. Dark colored urine that goes along with the patient not producing any urine. This can cause swelling in the face and extremities. Yellow skin or Jaundice. I believe this to be an early sign of liver failure.

Acute Renal Failure, Kidney Disease
Courtesy of Healthtap.com 
Now on to my personal experience with this whole thing. My stepdaughter's father is going through this right now. I am not sure how much longer he has to live. The man is in Hospice as I am typing this. I have noticed that his urine is either not their or just blood. His hands are starting to swell, and he has shown some twitching. Not to mention thirst. These are all signs of Acute Renal Failure End Stage.

From what I have learned from reading different sources on the net, the time frame of life for this is very unpredictable. It could be from days to weeks. Its too hard to tell because all patients are different. Some doctors tell you that kidney failure is the least painful way to die. Not sure about this, because at Hospice they wont let him eat or drink. It seems to me that is just a way to speed the process along. The nurse did mention that they do not want him to aspirate. This is all new ground for me, if anyone knows more, please comment.


Here is to hoping that this process goes along with the man having the least amount of pain possible. I want nothing more that that for my stepdaughter. There is enough stress on her and him at the moment. So, in closing if you know that your suffering from liver failure or kidney disease, please do something about it. You need to see and work with your doctor to have the possibility of a transplant. Check back for more as time goes by.