Acute kidney injury can be sudden and quite daunting to understand. What caused yours? How well was it explained to you? What do you wish you had known?
I’ve had two AKI’s since I was diagnosed in 2023 - my daughter was an ITU staff nurse - but had only encountered AKI’s so couldn’t understand why I couldn’t stop CKD. I digress, I had Sepsis at the start of 2024 - I was incredibly unwell on three IV Antibiotics again - miraculously, it didn’t touch my kidneys - but then I was sent home with oral AB’s and told to just take everything as normal - Virtual Wards came out to take my bloods (thank goodness) - my Potassium was 7.7 - that caused my first AKI - e-gfr was 16.
Fast forward 12 months, I developed pancreatitis - I was left too long and didn’t have the “usual” treatment having had this twice before (albeit not for a very long time) - I went into perr-arrest - e-gfr was 6 and I was in ITU on acute 24 hour dialysis and given less than a 5% chance of surviving and was DNR. I then went on to the ward and had dialysis every other day - this was expected to continue - thankfully - my kidneys disagreed and I’m now back up in Stage 3b where I started sometimes go over 45 - but I have a history of depression anyway and this has left me with PTSD - absolutely no question - I went into hibernation this new year. (I don’t drink or smoke and have coeliac disease) so no idea what caused it 