Q: Four months back, I was admitted to a hospital in Mumbai due to high blood pressure and left side of my body became paralysed. In the hospital, lots of tests were done on me, which suggested that my kidney has been infected badly. My creatinine level was recorded as 10, and I had also developed minor stroke in my brain which resulted in the left side getting paralysed, but after medication my left side is perfect now, but since then I am on dialysis. My creatinine level keeps jumping between 4 to 10. I have now totally lost my appetite, whatever I eat is thrown out. My weight has dropped from 80 to 54 now. I would like to know has my kidney failed? None of the doctors give me a clear picture. Please help.

A:Clearly and unfortunately, high blood pressure if untreated for a long time can cause great deal of damage to various organs of the body. They include brain, heart, kidneys, eyes and blood vessels. In your case, you already had a stroke paralysis) resulting from BP-related brain damage. It is also clear that high pressure has resulted in kidney damage. You are suffering from kidney failure. Advanced kidney failure results in a variety of symptoms. Some of them include loss of appetite and taste, nausea/vomiting, weight loss, weakness and tiredness, swelling of legs, shortness of breath. I am convinced that symptoms you are describing are attributable to your kidney failure. Without treatment it will get worse with time. There are three treatment options: haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or kidney transplantation (if you are found fit for transplantation). You have mentioned that you are on dialysis. Despite that you continue to have such symptoms. There may be several possible explanations for this. You may be getting inadequate dialysis and all the wastes are not properly cleared. Other possibility is that you may have some gastrointestinal problem like gastritis or ulcer or any other stomach problem. You have not told us how frequently do you get dialysed and what is your blood urea. That will help in determining how much dialysis do you get. You need to see a kidney specialist (nephrologist) and seek his opinion after appropriate investigations are carried out.