The kidneys have a large reserve and a large amount of kidney must be damaged even before a person has symptoms of renal disease. For this reason a patient may have significant kidney damage but still feel perfectly well, see a doctor only very late in the course of his disease. A patient with mild kidney failure may initially not feel anything at all and in fact may feel totally well. However, as the kidney disease progresses, symptoms become more apparent. Patients may develop:
Not all patients develop all these symptoms. Some develop these symptoms during different stages of their disease. Also, it is important to realise that these symptoms do not necessarily only mean that one has kidney disease. Each disease affects each patient differently and to different extent.