Question: I have a GFR of 21 and it's steadily decreasing, as well as gout, and I'm taking warfarin for dvt's.... what really are my life expectancy chances (in years) with any form of RRT once I hit esrd, given that I'm also under 50 (turning 47 this year)... just fyi, the initial reason my kidneys had problems was post-strep glomerulonephritis?
My diabetes (t2) and high cholesterol are generally under control now, although for the diabetes, only Avandia seems to do any good effect at all. I'm also about 6' tall, 315 lbs, and male. I live alone, have major depression (treated by counselling) due to ptsd as a survivor of child abuse, and have no dependents.
To be honest, I'm starting to really like the idea of "conservative management" when the time comes, due to the quality of life changes I've read about regarding the various forms of RRT.
Please advise.

Hi.
To answer your questions:
1. My kidney disease started when I was about 11 or 12 years old. My creatinine level at last report was 286 (Feb. 3/ 2015), and has a history of rising about 10 to 30 points per year since I first was diagnosed. I don't have the information of what it was when it originally struck me. What I do know is that in the last year, it has risen at about 30 points. Note that there was one period of highly acute kidney failure (creatinine about 600+) as a reaction to taking a prescription of tetracycline about 5 years ago... when it settled back down, it was 50+ points higher than it had been at the time; I don't know if this is significant...

2. Same lab report gives hemoglobin at 115 g/L and calcium at 2.27 mmol/L.

3. I do have some swelling of my feet - my right leg is post-phlebitic, and my left still has several detected strands of dvt. I have compression stockings for when I need to be on my feet for a long time and when the swelling is otherwise a discomfort. Basically my legs have poor circulation, although not "horribly bad".

4. My appetite is gradually getting less and less over the years. I generally don't have regular meals, per se, but find something to eat when hungry and something to drink when thirsty. I don't really eat much, but likely that is offset by the caloric levels of what I do eat when I do - lots of juice, some snacks of fruit like strawberries, grapes and oranges, the occasional bowl of cereal or a few hard-boiled eggs, or a sandwich or two (usually chicken bologna or cheese), and I have a habit of also enjoying peanut butter and jam.

AS a side note, I am generally very sedentary in my lifestyle, mainly due to my weight and lack of energy, I have sleep apnea (with BiPap), and I'm trying to get a bit more stamina via a few minutes a few times a day on my exercise bike.

5. Daily urine levels depend mainly on two things... one is whether I have a nap (sleep about an hour or so) without using my BiPap, which happens fairly often (although not narcoleptically), at which times afterward my urine levels are much higher than if I use the BiPap for sleeping. The other is what I would call my usual levels of urination, which to me seem "normal". The urine is usually quite clear the more I do, although it is usually "frothy". The lab albumin/creatinine ratio is 35.5, and there have been low levels of protein in it since my childhood (although no signs of blood for the last 20 or so years).

I hope this is useful.

Hi again.

The core of my question really relies on the first answer you gave, about 73% at the end of 5 years...

If you were to expand on that for expectations at, let's say, each 5 year interval after that I would appreciate it. ie...

5 years - 73%
10 years - ?
15 years - ?
20 years - ?

It would also help to know the usual variation in each, in this case especially with one assumption, being that all your wonderful recommendations might not have been followed as well as they should have. With a worse case scenario at each year target if nothing about my current lifestyle were changed at all.

Also, if you could, please differentiate the %'s based on the kind of RRT, in this case hemodialysis and kidney replacement (I will not do peritoneal dialysis), and give a likewise % rate if "conservative management" were chosen instead.

These are what I really need to know.