Hi All: I have been a Type 1 diabetic for 19 years. I'm a insulin pump user and in fairly good control. I'm not overweight but don't exercise much. I take medication for a type of migraine called ice pick migraines. My question is I don't know what this stuff has been doing to my kidneys. My neurologist says oh - I think you're safe. At what point should I see a nephrologist? My endocrinolgist has me on Altace because of protein in the urine but the last few visits have been clear. Should I just go ahead and make an appt. with one and get established with a kidney dr.? Am I being a hypocondriac? I welcome all suggestions. Thanks. Beebs:wave:

Before being referred to a neph, you need to do a 24 hour urine with complete blood work. If there is even the slightest amount of damage, then see the neph because the earlier you see one, the better.

There is no point, however, wasting the neph's (and your) time if you don't have any kidney damage yet. So get the testing done, and then see.

Best of luck to you.

Cora

I would have to agree with corvah here.you really just need the full work up and establish that baseline of just where you really are at first before even seeing the nephrologist,mostly since right now,you really do not even know if you really need to even see one,you know what i mean?

the thing is,most primary docs are perfectly capable of keeping track of your kidneys and their functions.i was Dxed with polycystic kidney disease back in 1999 and have actually seen my neph only three times since then.you just need to find out whats up first then decide whether or not their is an actual reason to even see one.getting in to see any specialist usually takes like a month or two at best for that initial visit.it gets quicker after that first one tho.

you will probably,considering your conditions and some odd lab work from time to time,really need to meet with one at some point in time.what pops up in your labs and other testing will determine when that time actually is.i have an excellent neph but really don't have the need to keep seeing him all the time only becasue everything that needs to be done for me as far as monitoring is done just fine thru my primary.lab work and ultrasounds are ordered from time to time.if my doc has any questions he will usually just call my neph,so i don;t have to see him just to have a question answered or something.it is pretty easy to monitor kidney function.just get the tests and see where you are at.good luck and please let us know how things are going.Marcia

Thanks Allie, Cora & Marcia for your great advice. I do appreciate it. I am under the care of a great endocrinologist. He's travels quite a bit doing seminars across the country (former editor in chief of Diabetes Forecast magazine) so my recent appt. was pushed back with him. However, I think I'm going to do my lab work and just have him call me with the results instead of waiting to see him in late July. He will do that for me. He gives me the lab sheet when I leave my appt. and then I get the lab work done 2 weeks before I see him. Pretty good system. I just have a feeling that something is not right. Anyway - I will keep you updated and thanks so much for the advice. Good luck to you all as well. Stay healthly. Life is a gift!! :angel: