Well, 6 months of the lower level of treatment for my protenuria hasn't managed to reduce the protein leakage from my kidneys. The meds are doing a good job of keeping it in check, but there hasn't been the improvement that we had hoped for.

So we're moving on to more agressive treatment and immunosuppressants. This decision isn't taken lightly as this course of treatment some potentially concerning side effects, including weight gain (due to increased appetite), becoming pre-diabetic,...

I have a diagnosis. What I have is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_s...erulosclerosis

Or at least I think that's it. My Dr. is an Indian gentleman and it was kind of hard to catch the exact phrase he used. I'll know with 100% certainty when I see him in two weeks.

What I know from our phone conversation is that in 1/3 of the cases the problem goes away, 1/3 requires more aggressive treatment in the form of cytotoxic medication and 1/3 leads...

The story so far:

I went to the doctor a few weeks back because of swelling in my legs (edema, in medicalese). After a whole battery of tests, they discovered that I'm excreting protein in my urine, which as one can imagine is not what's supposed to be happening.

The huge battery of tests they did told the doctors that the problem was definitely kidney related, which, in a weird way, is good, as edema such that I have can be caused by some other more scary things like...