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Knowledge to Empowerment

2024-04-26T15:33:39-04:00April 26th, 2024|Categories: Dialysis, Hemodialysis, In-Center Hemodialysis, Quality of Life, Support, The Kidney Citizen|

Nancy L. Scott, DPC Education Center Project Manager As I sat on the side of my hospital bed on a cold night in March of 2004, my heart was broken and it felt as though my time on the planet was almost over. I had just been diagnosed with END STAGE RENAL DISEASE. The word “end” means a final part of something, and I thought that something meant me. I had just retired and planned to enjoy life and travel as much as possible. These dreams had come to an end! (Little did I know at the time, [...]

A Look at Home Hemodialysis

2024-03-28T20:57:18-04:00August 3rd, 2023|Categories: Dialysis, eNews, Hemodialysis, Home Hemodialysis, Peritoneal Dialysis, Quality of Life, Treatment|

Summary by V. Scantlebury, MD, FACS Home dialysis modalities, which include home hemodialysis (HHD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD), offer several benefits for patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). Home dialysis is associated with improvements in blood pressure, less issues with mineral metabolism, better sleep quality and improvement of left heart enlargement. It also allows patients the flexibility of adjusting their own dialysis schedule with more time and less cost of traveling to the dialysis center. However, despite these advantages, only 2% of all dialysis patients in the d U. S.  and 3-6% in Canada are on HHD.  The authors from a [...]

Dialysis Cruising

2024-03-28T20:57:21-04:00June 14th, 2023|Categories: Dialysis, Hemodialysis, Quality of Life, The Kidney Citizen|

Joanne Smith, RN, Kidney Care Advocate, Fresenius Kidney Care Whether you are on in-center hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, or home hemodialysis taking a cruise is an option for you. It takes a bit of planning, but what vacation doesn’t? I have experienced several cruises that have offered services for dialysis patients. The treatments were performed in staterooms on the lower level of the ship, close to the infirmary. We used a portable reverse osmosis machine attached to the water from the bathroom to provide the purified water needed for the dialysis treatments. We used jugged acid and bicarbonate solutions [...]

For Mike Guffey, Working Was Key to Staying Positive

2024-03-28T20:57:27-04:00June 14th, 2023|Categories: Diagnosis of Kidney Disease, Dialysis, Employment, Hemodialysis, In-Center Hemodialysis, Kidney Transplant, Mental Health, Quality of Life, The Kidney Citizen|

Mike Guffey When Mike Guffey began dialysis treatments in 2008, one of his top priorities was to ensure he had a reason to keep moving forward, something to look forward to when he got out of bed which would allow him to push through his treatment regimen. For him, that meant returning to work as quickly as he could after starting his treatments, especially given how quickly he crashed into life on dialysis. Normally based in Kansas City, Mike was working temporarily as a project manager in Colorado when he noticed something was off. He went to the [...]

Ask the Doctor

2024-03-28T20:57:29-04:00June 14th, 2023|Categories: Costs for Treatment, Dialysis, Hemodialysis, Home Hemodialysis, In-Center Hemodialysis, Kidney Transplant, Medication, The Kidney Citizen|

Velma Scantlebury, MD, DPC Education Center Health Care Consultant 1. Four hours is too long for me to sit in dialysis. Do I have to attend every treatment? Answer: Think of dialysis as being the only way to get the toxins out of your body from the food that you consume everyday - three times a day. When you lose kidney function and are on dialysis, you are usually then only cleansing your body every other day. Those toxins will build up and can cause your body to deteriorate over time. Missing dialysis is harmful to your body. [...]

Staph Infections in Hemodialysis Patients

2024-03-28T20:57:36-04:00March 7th, 2023|Categories: eNews, Hemodialysis|

A new study, looking at data from the 2020 National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) and the 2017-2020 Emerging Infections Program (EIP), has found that Hispanic patients on hemodialysis had a 40% higher risk of having a Staphylococcus aureus (staph) bloodstream infection than white patients. This is on top of all hemodialysis patients being 100 times more likely to have an S. aureus bloodstream infection than non-dialysis patients. Data also showed that the S. aureus bloodstream infection rate was strongly associated with vascular access via central venous catheter over graft or fistulas. Higher rates of S. aureus bloodstream infections have also been [...]

A Career and Dialysis Become a Way of Life

2024-03-28T20:57:39-04:00February 1st, 2023|Categories: Dialysis, Employment, eNews, Hemodialysis, In-Center Hemodialysis, Physical Health|

By Gene Blankenship, DPC Board Member I was 42 years old when I crashed into dialysis, though my family obviously knew about my kidney disease. I also worked full time and so the next step was to tell my employer, OPEA. I cannot compliment my employer enough. From the second I told my Supervisor and our Executive Director it was, as the cool kids say, "cake". First words out of their collective mouths were "How can we help?'  My doctor and I had already discussed what I could do while still keeping my health a priority. This made [...]

Just a Dad with Kidney Disease

2024-03-28T20:57:40-04:00January 11th, 2023|Categories: Dialysis, eNews, In-Center Hemodialysis, Kidney Transplant, Quality of Life|

By Gene Blankenship, DPC Board Member Being a dad with kidney disease is something that I never imagined when I was younger.  Actually, I never once pictured myself as a person who would be challenged by kidney failure, even though I watched my dad "Big Gene" struggle with end stage renal failure all my life until his death when I was 12 years old. Now, my weeks each have an automatic 16 hours at the dialysis center (20 hours with travel) during “prime time” completely scheduled for me until I receive a transplant.  Those 20 hours are the perfect [...]

My Experience as a Kidney Patient in CKD, Dialysis, and Transplant

2024-03-28T20:58:16-04:00April 25th, 2022|Categories: Diagnosis of Kidney Disease, Dialysis, Home Hemodialysis, In-Center Hemodialysis, Kidney Transplant, Stages of Kidney Disease, The Kidney Citizen|

By Orlando A. Torres After a 30-year battle with chronic kidney disease (CKD), in 2016 I had Stage Five kidney failure. This was the end of a three-decade battle which took countless hours of treatment. For years, I had been followed medically for CKD, having a special test done monthly and eating a special diet. As a CKD patient, my condition affected other organs in my body. The number of regular activities I could do also declined, but I never quit and refused to accept those limitations. I never let CKD limit what I did. I think it is [...]

Travel Lovers, Don’t Let Dialysis Slow You Down

2024-03-28T20:58:46-04:00December 17th, 2021|Categories: Home Hemodialysis, Peritoneal Dialysis, Quality of Life, The Kidney Citizen, Treatment|

By Vanessa Evans, Sr. Manager, Patient Communities and Advocacy at Fresenius Medical Care North America and DPC Board Member Brenda and Bernie Alvey are the consummate camper travelers, crisscrossing the United States and taking in sights from the St. Louis Arch to the Grand Canyon. But their camper has a few unusual features, including two recliners, extra outlets, and a homemade stand to accommodate Brenda’s portable home hemodialysis equipment. The Alveys have always loved traveling, but they thought their trips had come to an end when Brenda was diagnosed with Membranoproliferative Glomerulonephritis (MPGN), an autoimmune disease that destroys kidney [...]

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