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Living with Kidney Disease: Tips for Teens on How to Cope

2024-03-28T20:59:14-04:00April 22nd, 2019|Categories: eNews, Mental Health, Pediatric Kidney Disease|

By Elizabeth Lewan, Communications & Grassroots Program Coordinator at the American Psychological Association Your kidneys have many functions in the body and play an important role in your overall health and wellness. They help the body eliminate harmful toxins by filtering waste and extra fluid from your blood, control blood pressure and keep your bones healthy. Although you have been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, you can still live a meaningful and healthy life. You may be feeling scared or unsure about your health or the changes happening to your body. It may seem like you’re on an emotional roller coaster, [...]

Martinlow Spaulding: Humorist, Activist and Family Man

2024-03-28T20:59:14-04:00April 15th, 2019|Categories: Blog, Humor and Laughter, Kidney Transplant, Lifestyle|Tags: |

April is National Donate Life Month, and it is also National Humor Month. Martinlow Spaulding, living with kidney disease for over 25 years, easily celebrates the significance of both. Spaulding is a transplant recipient who combines humor and laughter in his daily life. He tells a lot of jokes—some of them get a few giggles, and some of them get a few groans. But his positive attitude and outlook on life help him find the “funny” in a lot of situations. Spaulding, the youngest of five children, is the recipient of not one but two gifts of life—both donated by his [...]

Relieving Pain Through Laughter

2024-03-28T20:59:16-04:00April 8th, 2019|Categories: Humor and Laughter, Lifestyle, Physical Health, Webinar|Tags: |

Joyology is the lifestyle that skillfully blends laughter, humor, and attitudes to help recover from difficulties and re-awaken the joy of being alive. During this webinar you will: 1) learn about joyology as a lifestyle, 2) discover ways to manage pain and 3) understand how laughter can help ease pain. Presented by: Mary Laskin, MN, RN, ACNS-BC and Steve Wilson, Psychologist, The Joyologist

Keep Your Funny Side Up: Discover The Humor Perspective

2024-03-28T20:59:17-04:00April 1st, 2019|Categories: eNews, Humor and Laughter|

By Steve Wilson, Psychologist, Joyologist, DPC Education Center Advisory Council Member Here’s a sobering prediction I came across not too long ago: 52% of American executives will die of stress-related illnesses. As a psychologist I know that the emotional tension and stress experiences by those executives will not be caused by the events in their lives. Rather, the stress will be caused by their perceptions of those events. It is not what is happening to us that hurts; it’s how we think about what is happening to us. When you received the diagnosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD), it was a [...]

My Personal Experience with a Rare Condition

2024-03-28T20:59:17-04:00March 29th, 2019|Categories: Diagnosis of Kidney Disease, In-Center Hemodialysis, Lifestyle, Physical Health, The Kidney Citizen|Tags: |

By Mark Scirocco, Patient Ambassador I have been on in-center hemodialysis for three years. It was a rough start, as I went through 11 chest catheters in a little over a year. Two of them just fell out while I was sitting at home; the others got clogged. The last one almost killed me, stopping fluid in my upper body and head. My fistula was barely ready when they took that one out and placed a stent in my chest to allow fluid past my upper body. Three months after starting my fistula, I needed a fistulogram to open it up. [...]

Maintaining Personal Relationships While on Dialysis

2024-03-28T20:59:19-04:00March 25th, 2019|Categories: Mental Health, Sex and Intimacy, Support, The Kidney Citizen|

By Alex Purcell People with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who have gone through dialysis can tell you that it is exhausting—and so can their loved ones. Not only does dialysis take a physical toll on the patient, it can also put significant stress on the patient’s relationships with their friends and family, right when they need those relationships the most. This dynamic can be especially complicated if the primary caregiver is a spouse or close relative. If you’re in this situation, as either a patient or a loved one, you may be feeling frustrated, sad or lonely. But there’s hope: transplant [...]

Free Monthly Webinars/Conference Calls

2024-03-28T20:59:20-04:00March 21st, 2019|Categories: About DPC Ed Center, Costs for Treatment, Diagnosis of Kidney Disease, Early Intervention, Employment, Home Hemodialysis, Humor and Laughter, Immunizations, In-Center Hemodialysis, Kidney Transplant, Lifestyle, Medication, Mental Health, Music, Nutrition, Pediatric Kidney Disease, Peritoneal Dialysis, Physical Health, Sex and Intimacy, Stages of Kidney Disease, Stress Management, Support, Symptoms, The Kidney Citizen, Webinar, What Causes Kidney Disease|

The DPC Education Center invites people living with chronic kidney disease (CKD), end-stage renal disease (ESRD), their families and professional staff to join us for our monthly webinars. You can also join by phone or view the recordings online at a later time. The webinars are planned for the fourth Thursday of the month at 2 p.m. Eastern time zone, except for November and December when they will be held during the third week of the month. You can download monthly webinar fliers to share with others and/or register for webinars at www.dpcedcenter.org/news-events/education-webinars. Join by phone by calling 1-877- 399-5186 and [...]

Get Your Sweat On! Exercising for Healthier Kidneys

2024-03-28T20:59:26-04:00March 1st, 2019|Categories: eNews, Physical Health, Webinar|

During the webinar, the following points will be covered: Background on the benefits of regular physical activity and exercise relating to kidney function. The impact current research is showing on exercising in helping to slow down kidney disease progression. Strategies for getting started with a new exercise routine, along with tips to keep you motivated! Presented by Collette Powers, MA, RDN, LDN, ACSM EP-C, Renal Dietitian

Two Therapies Found to Help Dialysis Patients with Depression

2024-03-28T20:59:27-04:00February 27th, 2019|Categories: eNews, Medication, Mental Health|

For almost 50 years, hemodialysis has extended lives of people with chronic kidney disease. But when a patient first learns that their kidneys have failed and dialysis is necessary to survive, it can be a jolting overture of mortality. These patients usually have lived for years with diabetes or hypertension – diseases onerous for their medication regimens and lifestyle constraints. Adding dialysis, a four-hour, thrice-weekly therapy, can easily push patients into depression if they don’t already have that diagnosis. With this backdrop, researchers report today that two treatments, cognitive behavioral therapy (counseling) and the drug sertraline, effectively reduce depression among people [...]

Work Those Kidneys Out!

2024-03-28T20:59:29-04:00February 23rd, 2019|Categories: Early Intervention, Fact Sheet, Lifestyle, Physical Health, The Kidney Citizen|

By Collette Powers, MA, RDN, LDN, ACSM EP-C We have all heard it, and we all know it. We have been told from our doctor, a friend or a loved one. Whether it is for controlling high cholesterol, managing weight, reducing blood sugar or keeping our bodies healthy overall, we have all been told at some point we should exercise. But did you know exercise may help protect your kidneys too? Fatigue is a common struggle that many patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) face. When we are tired, our instinct is to rest. However, over time, that “rest” can [...]

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