Acute renal failure

My MILs partner has just been admitted to hospital with this apparantly he has 15% kidney function. She is a nurse and always thinks the worst (I guess cos shes seen so many worst cases) Anyway does anyone have any experience with this and what the long term is for him? I googled it but didn't really understand and MIL is talking like he doesn't have much time left. We just want to have some sort of idea whats going on.

TIA

hi Rachel
first of if it is acute then he may well recover, once what has caused it has been shaken, a true acute onset will cure up quickly. Tha other option is he may regain some kidney function (you can live quite happily on the function of half one healthy kidney)
So at this point it kind of depends on what has caused this and whether it is reversable. He may need some form of renal replacement therapy, usually in the form of dialysis, which is a way of cleaning and filtering the blood using an artificial kidney machine until his kidneys recover. this is what I do, but my main job is training people to do this at home independently
I can answer any questions if you want me to. there are so many variables that it would be difficult to answer without knowing what was going on, ie is it sudden in happening or is it something that he has known about it for a while?
Ask away if you need to

Ok so he has a neckline in which is a tube with 2 tubes in, like two straws wrapped together, whcih are sitting in the main vein in his neck (probably the jubular), one tube is used for the blood to come out, then it goes through the artificial kidney (dialyser) and is returned through the other tube, he will probabkly have this for about 2-3 hours, and then again for slightly longer in a day or so. Everyday he will have bloods taken and his levels of two toxins- urea and creatinine- will be monitiored, to give an idea of any function in his kidney, as these levels reduce they will reduce the amount of dialysis he has, and that will give an idea of if he will need dialysis longterm.
as to when he comes home it will depend how sick he is now, if they can stabilise him and do investigations pretty quickly, probably ultra sound of kidneys and some flow xrays to check which side is or isn't working, he may be sent home pretty quickly and go in for blood tests and dialysis as an out patient. But it really is a wait and see situation, as I say if this a "true" acute state he could get full recovery and never need dialysis again (I had acute renal failure when I was travelling years ago from anti malarial tablets, I stopped taking them and have never had any other problems), but there may be some other damage caused, so the illness he had a few weeks ago may be due to renal failure, the toxins building up to make him feel ill.
As I say ask away

My FIL was on dialysis, he had kidney failure as a result of type 2 diabetes, I don't know much about it but it's interesting to read Claire's explanation. All I knew was that FIl was on the kind of dialysis he could have at home, he had boxes and boxes of this stuff from Baxter healthcare and he had to do it 2-3 times a day. He was on it for years.