Do you have kidney failure, or is this a general question? It means that they are not functioning well in their general job of removing toxins from your blood. You should google "kidneys and how they work". This will give you a good overview of what they do. Three major systems required for life are the heart, the lungs and the kidneys, and the failure of any one of these to function at all means death unless there is intervention. Kidneys do not fail all at once. But there are indications in your blood work that tell when they are beginning to function at less than optimum. This can happen for many reasons, through many disease processes. Diabetes is hard on kidneys, medications and drug use is hard on them, and sometimes it is merely genetic bad luck. A lot of your questions seem quite general in nature, so remember that the search engine is your friend. It will point you to more information on almost any subject than you can imagine. Youtube will often give you tutorials with pictures. If your doctor suggests that you are facing kidney failure you will have questions for him. 1. What caused this do you think? 2. How long might they function without any need for dialysis? And etc.
It means that , that person is probably heading towards renal failure which will need dialysis or a transplant. You should go to nephrologist, they might be able to help you slow down the process. My advice, seek out a transplant early. From experience dialysis makes the quality of life extremely poor.
Failing means they probably no longer are filtering out toxins like they should. The toxins are probably showing up in your blood. My last labs show that mine are doing their complete job.
My Mom lost a kidney at 80 to bladder cancer. Her remaining one wasn't fully working. She never went on dialysis and lived to be 89. She passed because of Dementia. She didn't have diabetes.
Often, kidneys start to fail because of years of uncontrollable diabetes or high blood pressure. The rate of decreased function of the kidneys can sometimes be slowed by taking medication to control diabetes or BP or by controlling what is eaten and how much liquid is consumed. But, there may come a point when dialysis (artificial kidney machine) is recommended to clean the toxins and extra fluid from the blood. Although not fun to go to the clinic for dialysis 3 days a week, it is life saving treatment.
You may be developing a serious level of chronic kidney disease. There are five levels with stage 5 being the worst. Get a referral to a nephrologist to determine an exact diagnosis if this is yourself. If a loved one encourage them to seek a definitive diagnosis.
Kidneys like the liver are filer organs. They also help to control blood pressure. If kidneys are failing they were not working at optimal levels. Ypu need to talk to the doctor about what may be causing this and how to address it.
This is not a medical answer. But the impressions from doctors in the past have been it means organs are shutting down, death could be imminent. That is NOT our experience with known medical cases, friends, etc.
We know several people who continued to live (mostly healthy) many years after getting told "kidneys are shutting down", "organs are failing" while in ICU.
We do not know of anyone who was given this "prognosis" by a doctor who has died, in fact.
Imagine how we feel about a loved one receiving the diagnosis of 4th degree kidney failure, and he does not have kidney disease of any kind.
I have concluded secretly until now, that the patient must have bad insurance.
Not to make light of real kidney disease, but it requires vigilance and checking out, and a second opinion, imo.
It means that they are not functioning well in their general job of removing toxins from your blood.
You should google "kidneys and how they work". This will give you a good overview of what they do.
Three major systems required for life are the heart, the lungs and the kidneys, and the failure of any one of these to function at all means death unless there is intervention.
Kidneys do not fail all at once. But there are indications in your blood work that tell when they are beginning to function at less than optimum. This can happen for many reasons, through many disease processes. Diabetes is hard on kidneys, medications and drug use is hard on them, and sometimes it is merely genetic bad luck.
A lot of your questions seem quite general in nature, so remember that the search engine is your friend. It will point you to more information on almost any subject than you can imagine. Youtube will often give you tutorials with pictures.
If your doctor suggests that you are facing kidney failure you will have questions for him. 1. What caused this do you think? 2. How long might they function without any need for dialysis? And etc.
My Mom lost a kidney at 80 to bladder cancer. Her remaining one wasn't fully working. She never went on dialysis and lived to be 89. She passed because of Dementia. She didn't have diabetes.
That is NOT our experience with known medical cases, friends, etc.
We know several people who continued to live (mostly healthy) many years after getting told "kidneys are shutting down", "organs are failing" while in ICU.
We do not know of anyone who was given this "prognosis" by a doctor who has died, in fact.
Imagine how we feel about a loved one receiving the diagnosis of 4th degree kidney failure, and he does not have kidney disease of any kind.
I have concluded secretly until now, that the patient must have bad insurance.
Not to make light of real kidney disease, but it requires vigilance and checking out, and a second opinion, imo.
Maybe the patients can get better.