How do you improve kidney function?

Good question.

Step 1: If you make my heart happier, my kidneys become happier and they will work better.

Step2: Limit your H2O intake to 500 ml/day. What?!? You've got to be kidding me. That is the hardest thing for me to do. There is nothing more pleasurable than sitting down with a nice, tall, cold glass of clean water. My husband just bought me a new house in order that I could drink good water!! But, I want happy kidneys so I will do as I'm told. I guess I can drink all the good clean water I want after I transplant. Right?

Step 3: You start messing around with my immunesystem. I will be taking some anti-rejection drugs that appear to help improve kidney function. Not exactly uncharted territory; however, still a tad daunting.

Step 4: In an effort to make the heart happy, you undergo a rare, risky heart procedure called Atrial Septostomy. A small hole is punched between the two atria, thereby allowing a shunting of blood to go straight from the right side of the heart to be pumped to body by the left side of the heart: Totally skipping any oxygenation. Risky and I may be a Blue Girl for a while. They would fix this during the transplant. Lowering the pressure in my heart will make it happier and make my kidneys happier.

Where we are 8 days later:

I've endured a round of Bumex IV therapy (a strong diuretic). To say it "...causes body aches..." is the greatest understatement ever made. It made me feel like I had gone to Lifetime Fitness and overdid every single exercise machine so that I could not move a muscle without extreme pain. And then, just to top it off... Someone took me into the parking lot and beat me with baseball bats. That's the pain it causes.

The combination of the Bumex therapy and limiting of water to 500ml (I am doing it!) has lowered the Creatnine level in my blood from 2.56 to 1.71. Our goal is 1.51 -- it is just possible, by adding Step 3 above, we can improve my kidney function without any risky heart procedure.

And after that, there is still the small matter of 10 lbs. of extra fluid we need to get rid of.

I'm not a Doctor, but I could play one on TV.