Re: Mojo/Kimi

[Guest guest]

Mojo thank you so much for answering my question and giving me the website to go and look i really do appreciate it so much

Kimi, when I started my chemo over a year and a half ago, I was in class IV Diffuse proliferative, which is considered to be the most serious with the biggest risk of kidney failure. There are actually 6 classes by World Health Organization, but they do not increase in seriousness the higher up the class. It has nothing to do with that. For example: for many years I was considered Class V Membranous Nephritis and not much was done with it, hoping it'll just stay that way. Then I was upgraded in the seriousness to Class IV and put on chemotherapy immediately. I did have proteinuria for years, and big dosses of it, it was not due to a blockage so I wouldn't know much about that. As far as my reactions. Generally I didn't feel much pain in my kidneys, maybe a dull light pain in my back, but not much of it. I was extremely tired and my nerves were shot. My patience was gone, that was all due to the toxins that have not been filtered out of my body. My creatinine was 3.8 when I was put on chemo, but the decision was mainly made based on the kidney biopsy classifying me with Diffuse proliferative glomerular nephritis.

I'm copying the Classifications from Rheumatology.HSS.edu for your information.

the link if you want to look up more is: http://www.rheumatology.hss.edu/pat/eduPrograms/SLE/lupusNephritis.asp

Classification of Nephritis

The World Health Organization classifies kidney problems in the following way:

Class I - A little protein in the urine, with normal filtering function. These patients may need no treatment other than that needed for their other lupus problems.

Class II - Mesangial change in one area of the glomeruli - The mesangium is the structure that holds up the filtering units in the kidneys. In this class, there are some changes in one area of those units. Depending on how fast those changes are developing, the doctor may want to start treatment.

Class III - Active inflammation but in a patchy fashion with some areas remaining normal. The doctor wants to give advice on treatment

Class IV - Diffuse proliferative glomerular nephritis - Virtually all of the kidney is involved in inflammation.

Class V - Membranous nephritis- New deposits have gotten stuck on the filtering membrane and have not elicited an inflammatory response - The doctor may decide to leave it alone and watch it or to treat it intermittently.

Class VI - Advanced sclerosing (scarring) - The disease is beyond the point where it can be treated with the anti-inflammatory or immunosuppressant medications that normally help lupus. Instead, we treat with medications to try to prevent further scarring, which may or may not work.