High creatinine reading indicates need for dialysis?

I notice that doctors tend to push dialysis for a patient with high creatinine; and I suspect that a lot of patients get on dialysis too early and thus unnecessarily.

What is the observation of people in this regard? My own opinion based on contacts with people who have successfully avoided dialysis is to see if you can bring down your creatinine level to the range normal with yourself considering your age and sex and other peculiar conditions.

Before kidneys finally stop working altogether and you will enter the phase where death watch is irreversible, modern medicine can always get you to keep you alive, yes with dialysis.

But not with the heart: when it stops it might not get pumping again even with all the wonders of modern medicine. The heart is the organ to watch out for by early instead of too late medical intervention.

Try everything you can to stave off dialysis, restore the normal function of the kidneys by all possible means first.

What do you guys say?

I disagree with you, I think it is better to start dialysis while you have some kidney function because it makes the transition easier. If you Wait until "kidneys finally stop working altogether" before starting dialysis it will be much harder on your body.

The hardest way to start dialysis is to show up at a hospital on death's door and have dialysis that night after the placement of a catheter. If you are seeing a clear trend of diminishing kidney function you should prepare for dialysis by having a a/v fistula created. The hope is that it will mature by the time you have to have your first treatment and you will be able to start treatment without ever having a catheter.

Even better would be to start with peritoneal dialysis. Studies have shown that peritoneal dialysis helps to maintain kidney function. Which gets back to the fundamental reason I think your logic is flawed - starting dialysis with some kidney function is much easier than starting dialysis with no kidney function.

There are lots of kidney and dialysis patients that can help answer this question at http://www.ihatedialysis.com - go to the forum and post a question - it's a really great group of people with experience and knowledge to share.

When you have high creatinine you need dialysis. You can do dialysis and watch your creatinine labs and see if they come down. If it looks like you are regaining kidney function, your doctor can have you hold dialysis for a treatment or two and recheck your creatinine after that. I have seen about 3 or 4 people regain function in the 18 months I've been a dialysis technician. It's rare, but it happens. And always be willing to get a second opinion.