Knee Pain

[midagetrolop]

I had a telephone appointment with my doctor yesterday re knee pain, he asked me what I had been taking for painkillers and when I said ibuprofen, he said I should not be taking that as I have stage 3 kidney disease - I was shocked as this was news to me, it has never been mentioned to me. Should I be worried and should I take this up with the doctor. I do not have any of the symptons. What do you think?

[Sqad]

What do Ithink and what would I do?
Your doctor is correct.......theoretically.
If Ibuprofen can be replaced by another effective painkiller then i would/might change over.
If Ibuprofen gave me the pain relief I was seeking, I would continue taking it.
Ibuprofen 400mgms twice a day or even three times a day would not,in my opinion affect your Stage 3 CKD.

Your choice.

[Barsel]

Has your GP arranged for you to have an x-ray of your knee?

[midagetrolop]

What I want to know is should I have been told I had Stage 3 Kidney disease?

[Mamyalynne]

You certainly should.

[pixie374]

Yes. I would want to know if there is anything I should be doing about it and why nobody had told me.

[Hopkirk]

I would be steaming mad if that was me.

[Sqad]

Being told you had Stage 3 CKD seems to me not that lmportant and may well have alarmed you unnecessarily, as it clearly has done.
There is no specific treatment for Stage 3 CKD, just the treatment of predisposing conditions like high BP and diabetes, which I would bet that you have.
Also.....ask your GP what evidence he has for your diagnosis.
Not a big deal........

[midagetrolop]

I am not diabetic, my blood pressure is ok and my cholesterol is 5.00. I am having a face to face appointment next week, so I will take it up with him then, and yes I was taken aback it was the first I knew.

[Barsel]

midagetrolop a friend of mine has often been told she has kidney disease, although nobody has ever said what stage, and she always says to them,
'So I keep being told, although nothing has ever been done about it.'
I can only presume they know this by blood tests, but as sqad has said, it has alarmed you and if I were you, I would discuss it with your GP who can hopefully put your mind at rest.

[Sqad]

Barsel is correct CKD staging is dependant on the results of blood tests alone.
Write them down, bring them onto AB and we will make out comments lol...lol.

[midagetrolop]

SERUM CREATININE 97UMOL/l SERUM UREA LEVEL 8.9mmo/L

[Sqad]

I don't understand those figures as staging of CKD is usually measured in mls per min of filtration.
I will give it further thought after dinner.

[Sqad]

I have given this further thought and am convinced that the figures that you have given cannot be used to diagnose stage 3 CKD or indeed any kidney damage.
The figures we are looking for midage is the amount of blood your kidneys are filtering, what is known as the Glomerular Filtration Rate ( GFR)......get these values and get back to us.

[bednobs]

It will show as egfr

[Eve]

I went in to the Stage 3 CKD zone, from eGFR blood results and it was kept an eye on initially. I did see renal at one stage (after a while of my GFR going down and having the extra risk factor of Rheumatoid Arthritis) who checked a lot of things out and did a kidney ultrasound. I don't have high blood pressure or diabetes.

I was taking ibuprofen regularly as part of my pain relief medication, mainly for RA but I also have OA in my knees and other conditions. I was advised to stop the ibuprofen and my eGFR results went up a bit (in the right direction). It included NSAIDs generally, not just ibuprofen.

I have bloods done pretty regularly anyway, so easy to keep track of my GFR, and it's a bit of a balance. It's not that I can't take any ever again, but it's more when the balance outweighs, eg having it occasionally, or a shorter burst of taking it more often. So more if I'm, say, having a really bad flare, especially if I'm off my RA meds for some reason, like an infection. People react differently though. Time and monitoring helped in my case.

[midagetrolop]

I found this eGFRcreat(CKD-EB)1.73m ......56mL/min.

[Sqad]

That is late Stage 2 and early Stage 3 at the date of testing (whenever that was).
No reason to be alarmed.

[bednobs]

AFAIK they like it to be above 60 (lower if you are afro-carribean)
do you have regular BT?

[midagetrolop]

Thanks you sqad and bed nobs, but i think i will take it up with doctor when I go with knee next week. Thank you again I was quite taken back when he said it.