Still here

Checked my last set of test results. It's really handy having them online, I hope they keep doing that. My creatinine is now 333, which is as high as it got when I was in hospital last November. GFR is down at 14, the lowest it has been apart from when I was really ill.

Just for a frame of reference - creatinine is a by product of muscle work in the body. Normal levels are below 100, but someone with serious kidney failure who needs dialysis suddenly could have anything from 300 to 1000, with the latter making them really really ill. GFR stands for Glomerular Filtration Rate and relates to how quickly your kidneys remove waste products from the body. A "normal" level is conveniently 100, so as it drops many people sort of refer to it as a percentage, even though it isn't really. Kidney failure comes in 5 stages:

Stage 1	GFR = 90 mL/min or more
Stage 2 (Mild Damage)	60 to 89 mL/min
Stage 3 (Moderate Damage)	30 to 59 mL/min
Stage 4 (Severe Kidney Failure)	15 to 29 mL/min
Stage 5 (Established Kidney Failure)	Less than 15 mL/min or on dialysis

At least now when I quote numbers there's a reference somewhere on the blog if anyone reads it!

I'm anaemic and my phosphate level is creeping up. Really want to avoid having to go onto phosphate binders or start watching my diet. Being able to eat what I like (within reason!) has been one of the things I've been really grateful for up to now; having to have certain tablets before food and stuff like that would just be such a downer. Will just have to keep an eye out for getting itchy or generally feeling rubbish and see what happens!

I'm going back for another HepC vaccination in a couple of weeks. Might see if they'll give me another iron infusion at the same time, might perk me up a bit.