Firstly, Diabetics may get up for the bathroom more often at night.
As we know, normal people have more urine in the day than that at night. The things will change if the renal tubules are damaged and the function of concentration decrease, which is a sign of pathological changes in the kidneys.
Secondly, proteinuria is also an earliest sign of Diabetic Nephropathy.
Albumin in the urine presents long before the usual tests done in your doctor's office which can show evidence of kidney disease, so it is vital for diabetic patients to do a regular check more often. The glomerular filtration rate (GFR) begins to decrease if the proteinuria lasts for a long period, and degree of the disease also closely relates to the quantity of the proteinuria.
Thirdly, High blood pressure is also one of the main symptoms of Diabetic Nephropathy. Among the patients with Type 1 Diabetes, the morbidity of Hypertension is same with that among normal people, while the patients with Type 2 Diabetes may suffer a higher risk of getting high blood pressure. In addition, patients with proteinuria are also easily to get Hypertension.
Fourthly, here are some other signs of Kidney Disease in patients with Diabetes, and you can scan them and check yourself.
1. Ankle and leg swelling, leg cramps
2. High levels of BUN and creatinine in blood
3. Less need for insulin or antidiabetic medications
4. Morning sickness, nausea and vomiting
5. Weakness, paleness and anemia
6. Itching
In the early stage, the signs are mainly about the decrease of renal function, for example, proteinuria, swelling, renal failure and anemia.