Positive Press

From my new book…

So, I downloaded my bloodwork from the hospital website and noticed my Glomerular Filtration Rate (or GFR) numbers from the past five years. The GFR was a normative 60 in the mid to late 2018, but in 2020, it was 53, and in 2021, it was 42, but my doctor never said anything.

My heart jumped negatively. Then, in 2022, it was in the low thirties. That is when my doctor emailed me, ‘flapping his wings’ and crying out, “Warning! Danger!!”. So why did he not tell me at 53 GFR? 60 was the baseline norm (at least for my demographic), so 53 should have meant a test to see if the drop was an anomaly. I asked my kidney doctor and my CKD nurse about this, and they both said it would not have made a difference if I’d known sooner.

But I think it would have because my GFR has been 24 for a year and a half and has not gone down. Why? I asked my medical staff. Diet and medication, they said. So why not start those at 53 or 42 GFR? Why wait until critical mass is reached?

So I don’t know that I’ll try to bring a lawsuit, but I do want to advocate for healthcare providers to notify patients sooner that they may be in danger.

Do the doctors think patients are so feeble that they can’t take the news? Would a doctor not tell a patient they had cancer until the tumor had metastasized? If someone knew their GFR was substantially dipping, they could at least take steps to minimize damage and prepare for the worst.