Good morning. My 92-y/o father was recently hospitalized with a variety of ailments. He had to be catheterized because he was not passing his urine. His chart indicates 'stage 3 kidney disease' was diagnosed several years ago, but neither he nor his wife nor any of his adult children had any knowledge of this. A sibling asked his PCP about it, and the answer was "most older adults have kidney disease."
Have any of you ever heard of this? I had not. I am now wondering if my husband and I, both in our 60s, should be doing something specific to avoid kidney disease; specifically diet. Can a starch-based diet forestall developing kidney disease? We still don't know who, when, and by what method kidney disease was discovered - or if it is just a supposition on the part of some doctor due to his age. He has had urinary tract problems for years, but we understood it was a result of an enlarged prostate.
My father ate the typical American diet and was quite overweight at one point, but over the past couple of years, he lost most of his appetite and became dangerously underweight and had to be encouraged to eat. He also never liked vegetables much and to this day, will tell my husband and me we don't get enough protein, so you get the picture.
He has been suffering off and on for the past two weeks from delusions - seeing things that aren't there; talking to people long dead; accusing family members of various things - where up until now, his cognitive function has been pretty good for a person in his 90s. He gets worse when they withdraw the Foley catheter, so we are drawing the conclusion that his urinary tract health has something to do with his mental state.
