Kidney failure usually develops insidiously, which makes it dangerous and life threatening. In the initial stages, a person may experience unusual fatigue, poor concentration, and reduced appetite.
As the kidney functions are declining, the patient starts showing more specific symptoms such as swelling of ankles, feet, and or eyes due to fluid retention, decreased urine output and sometimes its increased night volume, foamy or dark colored or bloody urine and metallic or ammonia taste in the mouth caused by increasing accumulation of toxins in the blood. Some patients may also report muscle cramps, itching, nausea, and dyspnea caused by fluid congestion in lungs.
There are various underlying causes of kidney failure, including longstanding diabetes and hypertension, both leading to gradual damages to microvessels in kidneys.
These factors are also included in the list of the most common kidney failure triggers along with recurrent UTIs, obstructions in kidney drains stones, for example, some autoimmune conditions, prolonged use of non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs, or rapid decline in kidney perfusion caused by severe dehydration, blood loss, and or serious infection.
The problem lies in the fact that most of these symptoms tend to coincide with normal signs of exhaustion or sickness; hence, people usually brush them off.
The best policy in this case would be that if any of the following symptoms persist for a couple of days, it’s better to have some tests done instead of waiting and hoping that it will go away,swelling, extreme fatigue, changes in urination.
However, if you notice that there is no or minimal production of urine, confusion, chest pain, and shortness of breath, then this requires immediate medical intervention.
