tion:The kidneys work 24 hours a day 7 days a week with no vacations unless they fail. Kidneys are responsible for many things, namely: 1. Filtering wastes and excess fluid 2. Excreting hormones and enzymes that regulate blood pressure and red blood cell formation 3. Maintaining a proper acid/base balance (pH) of the blood When your kidneys fail, several things happen. Since the kidneys are no longer filtering properly, fluid will accumulate causing edema (swelling) of your extremities; fluid will also build up around your lungs causing difficulty breathing, and around your heart causing congestive heart failure. Because there is excess fluid in your blood stream, your blood pressure will also rise, which can lead to a whole world of other complications. Additionally, there would be a build up of electrolytes in the blood, the most dangerous of which is potassium. Potassium regulates muscle function, and when too much potassium (hyperkalemia) is present it will cause muscle spasms and abnormal heart rhythms and can potentially be fatal. Not so fun fact of the day: the lethal injection used in executions is a cocktail of drugs that includes potassium chloride to cause cardiac arrest, if that TELLS you how dangerous too much potassium is. Urea is a BYPRODUCT of waste in the blood that is usually excreted in urine. A build up of this is called uremia, which can cause fatigue, weakness, mental malfunction, and can ultimately kill you. The kidneys produce an enzyme called renin that essentially plays a role in blood pressure (specifically mean arterial pressure) regulation. The kidneys also produce erythropoeitin, which facilitates the production of red blood cells. When sufficient erythropoeitin is not produced, your body can't make enough red blood cells, which is a condition called anemia. Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body, which is vital to organ survival. When the blood becomes too acidic (the pH is too low) it causes ketoacidosis, which can potentially be fatal if untreated. A big sign of ketoacidosis is, oddly enough, the smell of your breath, which may smell like Juicy Fruit or like acetone (two entirely different smells, but that's just what I've learned and EXPERIENCED with my patients.) The two main culprits for causes of kidney failure are diabetes and high blood pressure (hypertension.) There are two treatments for kidney failure, but no cure: dialysis and kidney transplant. Transplant is considered a treatment because it doesn't actually fix your existing kidneys, it just replaces them with someone else's kidney. Dialysis comes in two forms, hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Hemodialysis involves blood going through a machine and an artificial kidney to filter out waste and excess fluid. Peritoneal dialysis involves filtration through the peritoneal membrane, and the process occurs inside your body, with the exception of a small port (catheter) that stays in your belly and is used to instill the fluid that makes the magic happen. And, of course, there are (rarely) people who opt for no treatment because they FEEL as THOUGH their quality of life would diminish. This course is always fatal, but it's a personal decision one makes based off of their values and beliefs. I just inform, not decide for people. You can live with just one kidney, and often people don't have any signs or symptoms of kidney disease until they have about 15% kidney function remaining. Kidney failure is usually preventable (except in some cases of lupus and chronic glomerulonephritis caused by an autoimmune disease like Goodpastures Syndrome) through proper monitoring and treatment of blood pressure, adequate water intake, and good management of diabetes. If you suspect kidney failure, see your doctor so he/she can run some blood tests. I won't say living with CKD is easy because I see the struggles everyday, but