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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 [...]

One Step Closer to a Wearable Artificial Kidney

2024-03-28T20:59:02-04:00August 11th, 2021|Categories: Dialysis, eNews, Home Hemodialysis|

For the past 20 years, Victor Gura, MD, FASN, an associate clinical professor of medicine at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has been working on a wearable artificial kidney, or WAK. Gura has been through multiple iterations - from prototype 1.0, which weighed over 200 pounds, to prototype 2.0, which weighed 11 pounds and was tested in clinical trials in Italy, London, and Seattle, to the latest version, WAK 3.0. Weighing in at just 2 pounds and powered by a rechargeable battery, WAK 3.0 was issued patent number 10,993,183 for a combination wearable and stationary dialysis system. The description [...]

There Is No Place Like Home

2024-03-28T20:59:12-04:00April 19th, 2021|Categories: Home Hemodialysis, Peritoneal Dialysis, The Kidney Citizen|

By Shaminder Gupta, MD, Nephrologist End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) is a life changing diagnosis and impacts both the patient and the family. While waiting for renal transplantation, renal replacement therapy (RRT) is required to sustain life. RRT, also known as dialysis, can be provided either in-center or at home. Home therapies can either be via peritoneum (PD) or via fistula (HHD). Patients are concerned about their own abilities to provide this life sustaining therapy on their own. This is natural and should be anticipated as a barrier. Most of us, including medical professionals, would also share these apprehensions. Success at [...]

Participating in a Clinical Trial

2024-03-28T20:59:56-04:00August 21st, 2020|Categories: Additional Resources, Early Intervention, eNews, Home Hemodialysis, In-Center Hemodialysis, Kidney Transplant, Peritoneal Dialysis, Treatment, Webinar|

New medical treatments and products are continually being developed for people living with kidney disease. Part of the development process for high quality, scientific, and safe options is through research to test the treatment or product before it becomes available on the market. This phase of research is called a clinical trial or a clinical research project. People can volunteer to be part of a clinical trial if they meet the specific requirements for the study. You might consider participating in the research process for many reasons including if it has a personal meaning for you or if you want to [...]

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