Kidney Problems and Type 1 Diabetes

[GeoffreyFRose]

I am a 29 year old man with type one diabetes (since August 1993). I've been in relative good health for a number of years but I'm a bit concerned lately about potential complications.

For most of my 16+ years with diabetes, my A1c levels have been in the 6's...usually under 6.5. Occasionally, in the 7s. Never over that.

In 2005, my opthamologist noticed a trace of retinapathy but this was not found in 2006 or 2007. A trace of retinapathy was found again in 2008. But not in 2009.

I spent most of the past 3.5 years living in Los Angeles under the care of a board-certified Endocrinologist. Apparently, he was not checking my blood or urine for kidney function very often. I had assumed, based on previous experience, that this was being kept up but my records only indicate a negative urine microalbumin test from December 2007 (nearly 2 years ago).

In the past year, I've noticed a degree of erectile decline - I've been prescribed 100mg of viagra to take as needed. And since August (2009), I had two experiences that I think might be neuropathic. I was walking to school and felt a pin-***** sensation in my leg. It was painful and startling enough for me to go home and pull down my pants to see if a safety pin had been stuck into them by the dry cleaners. I've also been experiencing a degree of lower back pain. This may be due to lifting weights with a personal trainer at the gym but I'm worried that it could be a sign of kidney disease. That said, it seems to be affected movement so it could very well be muscular.

I recently visited a new endocrinologist in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area - last Friday - and I'm waiting for a whole series of blood work to come back (lipids, A1c, kidney, testosterone, etc.).

Given my medical history and symptoms, should I be very concerned about kidney disease (obviously, I should ALWAYS be concerned about kidney disease but I mean at this particular time)?