2008 'Kid'ney Kids Calendar
On Friday, September 14, 2007, eleven separate planes arrived in Washington, DC, carrying a few very special visitors. The 11 visitors, accompanied by family members, range in ages seven through 18 and have won the American Kidney Fund’s (AKF) 12th Annual 2008 National "Kid"ney Kids Calendar art contest for children with kidney disease.
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2008 Donate Life Rose Parade Float
The increasing need for donated organs has motivated the transplant community to adopt creative techniques to inspire people to choose to be organ and tissue donors. Among such efforts, perhaps the most innovative and far-reaching is the entry of the Donate Life float in the world-famous Rose Parade, held on New Year's Day every year in Pasadena, Calif.
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A Man Named Mr. Black
My aspiration and inspiration was a man named Mr. Black--a little black man who took a liking to me. Why me? I’ll never know, but I am grateful for his wisdom. It was my last day on treatment in the hospital. Then I would start my treatments in a clinic. I was lying sick in my bed when this gentleman told me to sit up. I managed to sit up and listen to his every word.
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A Peaceful Mission Silenced
Seventeen years ago, I met Joey--a man who changed my life forever. We became not only partners in life, but in advocacy for ourselves and others who, like ourselves, had to live an effective life while dodging disease and its complications and treatment. We also had to learn to remain positive about our life's journey, to love, learn, and do for others what we had to do for ourselves.
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A Ride Across America 2: A Journey to Promote Organ Donation
In April 2006 (National Donate Life Month), we assembled a team of transplant recipients, living donors, and family members of donors and recipients and completed our second "Big Ride." After loading up our gear, we traveled from San Francisco to New York City on (take a guess...) ATVs!
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Abbie-Ca-Dabra: “Holding a Piece of Heaven and Looking Into Eternity”
My husband, John, and I had been trying to have a baby for about three years with no success. With my kidneys failing, we knew this was a long shot and might push me over the precarious edge into ESRD. Dr. O’Neill was trying to gauge how supportive he should be to us having a baby, but, at the same time, was being realistic about our chances. He was concerned about what might happen to me if I got pregnant. When my creatinine hit 3.5, I stopped having my menstrual periods. I was then told I could not get pregnant, that it was virtually impossible for me to have our much-wanted baby.
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Bush Baby Travels the Globe - Learning about Love, Joy, and Support While Living with Kidney Failure
This is a story about a little stuffed koala bear-like animal that has traveled the globe to visit people with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), bringing them love, joy, and support from fellow travelers with kidney failure. The tiny toy creature, called "Bush Baby," has journeyed to five continents, staying with one enthusiastic host or hostess after another.
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Capt. Ardell Lien Makes History as the First Heart/Kidney Transplant Patient to Sail Solo Around the World
He set sail in his tiny craft on May 5, 2005, from San Diego, CA. During his epic solo voyage, he visited 19 ports, survived hurricanes, gales, tropical storms, and blistering heat.
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Celebrate the Day
Lastly, I celebrate the day. I cherish each day that I am feeling reasonably well, each occasion spent with my family and friends. I have parties every holiday, even the little ones like Cinco de Mayo or St. Patrick's Day. On the day after Thanksgiving, I cook again and call it Thanksgiving 2. I tell my family and friends that I love them each time I see them. I kiss my son awake each morning and put him to bed each night with a kiss.
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Coming Full Circle
Because of the gifts I found deeply buried in the treasure chest of kidney failure, I will never, ever forget that I am to turn around and help those coming up behind me, so that they can turn around and help those coming up behind them, who can then turn around and help those coming up behind them.
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Did You Know? Willem J. Kolff, MD, the Father of Dialysis
Willem J. Kolff, MD, the Father of Dialysis
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Did You Know? Belding Scribner, MD, the Father of Chronic Dialysis, Made History in 1960?
Belding Scribner, MD, the Father of Chronic Dialysis, Made History in 1960
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Did You Know? Nobel Prize Laureate Joseph E. Murray, MD, Performed the First Successful Kidney Transplant
Nobel Prize Laureate Joseph E. Murray, MD, Performed the First Successful Kidney Transplant
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Did You Know? Richard Bright, MD, Physician Extraordinary to the Queen, is Known as the 'Father of Nephrology'
Richard Bright, MD, Physician Extraordinary to the Queen, is Known as the ‘Father of Nephrology’
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Essay Contest - 1st Place (2002)
Theme: "How the staff at your dialysis unit or transplant center encourages you to live a fulfilling life in spite of kidney disease"
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Essay Contest - 1st Place (2003)
Theme: "Kidney Disease - Redefining What is Important in Life"
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Essay Contest - 1st Place (2004)
Theme: "TOUGH TIMES - A Memory or Dream That Gets Me Through"
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Essay Contest - 1st Place (2005)
Theme: "That Special Someone"
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Essay Contest - 2nd Place (2002)
Theme: "How the staff at your dialysis unit or transplant center encourages you to live a fulfilling life in spite of kidney disease.
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Essay Contest - 2nd Place (2003)
Theme: "Kidney Disease - Redefining What is Important in Life"
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Essay Contest - 2nd Place (2004)
Theme: "TOUGH TIMES - A Memory or Dream That Gets Me Through"
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Essay Contest - 2nd Place (2005)
Theme: "That Special Someone"
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Essay Contest - 3rd Place (2002) Tie
Theme: "How the staff at your dialysis unit or transplant center encourages you to live a fulfilling life in spite of kidney disease"
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Essay Contest - 3rd Place (2002) Tie
Theme: "How the staff at your dialysis unit or transplant center encourages you to live a fulfilling life in spite of kidney disease"
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Essay Contest - 3rd Place (2003)
Theme: "Kidney Disease - Redefining What is Important in Life"
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Essay Contest - 3rd Place (2004)
Theme: "TOUGH TIMES - A Memory or Dream That Gets Me Through"
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Essay Contest - 3rd Place (2005)
Theme: "That Special Someone"
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From Rome to Seattle: A Short History of Dialysis
The basic foundation of nephrology and dialysis goes back many centuries. As early as 100 AD, the citizens of Rome used their steaming hot baths to "sweat out" the toxins when urea began building up in their bodies. The real research in removing extra fluid and toxins from the body, however, may have begun with Richard Bright, MD, FRS, who was known as the "Father of Nephrology," and, later in life, was appointed Physician Extraordinary to Queen Victoria of England. Bright conducted early research on kidney disease during the first half of the 19th Century.
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Hope is Love
I encourage everyone diagnosed with any illness to actively get involved with his or her healthcare. The more you know, the better quality of life you can have. How well do you want to live? Ask questions. Search the web. Talk to other patients, and keep an open mind. Your life is what you make it.
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Hope Moments
Tomorrow represents opportunity. It’s another chance to have a “do over.” With tomorrow, I can make amends. With tomorrow, I can try it again. With tomorrow, maybe that laugh that I didn’t get to have today will come. With tomorrow, the possibilities are endless, and just thinking about those possibilities in that “hope moment” gives me what I need to press on. Go ahead… inhale!… exhale!... Are you getting it yet?
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Hope with a Harmony
When people have certain aspirations in life or hope to get through a condition like kidney failure, they may think of an important person in their lives or even a belief. For me, that aspiration is none of those. It’s the thing that is always there for me no matter what. The thing that can get me out of bed every morning: Music.
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Hope, Sprinkled with a Generous Dose of Humor, is How My Husband Dealt with Kidney Failure
It's no different in the world of kidney disease. Shortly before we met in 1967, my husband, Jerry, was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (CKD). In 1980, he began a 25-year stint on home hemodialysis (HHD). During those years, he was a model for everything positive and hopeful about living well with CKD.
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If You Could Read My Mind, Love
So many times I wish my wife could have read my mind. How much easier that would have been! Despite our closeness, despite the extraordinary number of hours spent together on my dialysis nights, despite long rambling conversations about everything and nothing, she still wasn't privy to all my thoughts.
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Just an Annoyance: Confronting the Dialysis 'Baggage'
When faced with a chronic disease, every person reacts differently. Becoming “the patient” is never as simple as lying down and gracefully submitting to whatever treatment is recommended. Entering the world of ongoing illness, we drag along a conglomeration of baggage—upbringing, past experience, relationships, culture, religion, and fears.
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Living the Writing Life and Being a Peritoneal Dialysis Patient
As someone who has written 43 books down through the years, I am seen as having some sort of supernatural gift. Instead, I started out at least as wide of the mark as Austin and his basketball. With practice, I grew faster and more accurate. Skill? Intellect? I wish I had a lot of either. What I do have is tenacity, the belief that, by now, I can hit some sort of literary basket every time I shoot.
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Looking for Adventure: A Grand Waltz with Dialysis
This was not the first adventure Bill and the NxStage kidney machine have been on together. Bill traveled and dialyzed daily with his machine this last year on a road trip to Chicago with his dog, Cairny, taking in Yellowstone National Park along the way. He has also flown to three destinations with his machine. He can now say that he has been over land, sea, and air with his kidney machine.
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Mr. Right and My Left Kidney
Finally, I decided to put the quest for Mr. Right on the back burner and pursue my first love, movies, at the 1993 Montreal World Film Festival. And there on a street corner I met John Katz, EdD. But it wasn't as serendipitous as it sounds.
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My 'I Can' Attitude Has Guided Me Through the Rough Time of Kidney Failure
I feel strongly about it and often say that "everyone has a story." This is usually followed by someone telling me how boring and mundane their lives have been. I used to be like that until I sat back and took a close look at my own life.
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My Experiences in a Renal Unit During the Vietnam War
During the past 40 years, vast improvements in dialysis techniques and practice have been made, greatly enhancing the management of acute and chronic renal failure. Further understanding of the pathogenetic mechanisms of acute renal failure has been achieved, and work still progresses in this field. However, to the present time, it remains clear that, when dealing with combat casualties, the aim of paramount importance must be the prevention of acute renal failure (ARF) rather than treatment of established, or chronic, renal failure.
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My Journey as a Peritoneal Dialysis Patient to a Normal Life
No doubt, like anyone else who deals with chronic illness, I wondered with amusement if I even knew what a “normal” life is anymore. How could I--with PKD and CKD that led to PD (as well as all those other mysterious combinations of medical letters)?
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My Terrific “Normal” Life
I was born June 13, 1970 in Houston, Texas, a healthy, “normal” baby girl. At age 3, my family moved to Kenner, Louisiana, outside New Orleans. As a child, I loved sports. I played volleyball, basketball, and softball. I was best at softball. I played each summer in a neighborhood league. One of my childhood friends that I played with, Paige Weber, was the best in the league. She went on to play softball on a statewide level
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My Triumphant Journey as a Documentary Film Maker (Despite Kidney Disease)
While quickly approaching my 25th year on dialysis, I wanted to write this article to let other chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients know that there is life after renal failure. While everyone is different, a person who follows an optimal dialysis prescription, controls his or her diet, and finds time to exercise can have a pretty good life, despite CKD.
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Overcoming the Stumbling Blocks of Kidney Disease
Did you ever think life just wasn't treating you right? Maybe things were just going along great and the Boom!--something happens to change your entire life's focus. Maybe you thought you had a handle on a particular problem or issue, and then one little change turns your world upside down.
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Perceptions: Images in a House of Mirrors
The misconceptions about dialysis can be repetitive, frustrating, and nowhere near reality. So what can we, as patients or family members, do to counter these distorted images? Think Education, Attitude, Communication, Humor! “EACH” of us can reflect an image that will help portray dialysis in a more positive light.
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Poem - Those Who Go, Those Who Stay
I wrote this poem in 1990 when someone asked me about my experiences during the Vietnam War. My daughter Shari then painted a picture for me using my poem as her inspiration. It has the same title and depicts a Vietnam veteran kneeling at “The Wall” memorial in Washington, D.C.
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Sleep Apnea and Kidney Disease
Sleep apnea (SA) is a serious condition that is particularly important for patients with kidney disease to identify and understand. Complications include hypertension, heart attacks, strokes, and even sudden death. Just as importantly, SA affects individuals on a daily basis, causing fatigue, headaches, depression, and overall diminished executive functioning, which can lead to strains on interpersonal relationships and loss of productivity in daily endeavors.
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Something For Everyone at the U.S. Transplant Games
The success of transplant athletics--specifically, the U.S. Transplant Games--has created new opportunities to demonstrate the success of transplantation and the critical need for additional donors.
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Spring Fling: Earning Your Dialysis Dollars
"Have you earned your Dialysis Dollars today?"
That was a common question heard throughout the Jane Phillips Dialysis Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. We began this motivational program for our patients in November 2006. The social worker and dietitian worked together to develop a way to involve patients in their own healthcare and well-being. Our goal was to get as many patients as possible interested in their lab work and attitude in an effort to improve their health, increase happiness, and encourage hope.
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Stem Cell Research and Kidney Disease
Stem cell research is one of the hottest, controversial, and ethical topics on the medical and political fronts. While research on adult stem cells (ASCs) is proceeding apace, studies on embryonic stem cells (ESCs), which many scientists believe will yield more positive and lasting results, has been stymied by ethical, political and religious concerns. Nonetheless, the eventual application of stem cell research to ongoing clinical application seems destined to be a major revolution in the history of medicine.
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The 'Chosen One': Bonnie Parks Markuson and Seattle's Life and Death Committee
Bonnie (Parks) Markuson has known something was wrong since she started wetting the bed in first grade. Her parents did everything imaginable to help her stop. They were told by the local doctor that she was lazy and just didn't want to get up.
Bonnie kept getting sicker with severe kidney and bladder infections. The doctor even took out her tonsils and adenoids in an attempt to stop the bedwetting. She spent most of her time sleeping and wondered why she didn't have the energy to play with other kids. When she was 12, the doctor again minimized Bonnie's illness.
"That's it," Bonnie's frustrated mom decided. "I'm taking her to the hospital!"
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The Big D
I occupy a mooring on Battleship Row. The row across from me is Sleepy Hollow. Between them lie the Pajama Islands, where the nurses and techs have their cabanas. The Hollow has most of the snoozers. I would like to think my row has most of the lively conversation, though sleep is an endless temptation--three hours in and one to go.
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The Courage to Live
My doctors told me that my kidneys would function for about six more years. After that, I would either have to begin dialysis, have a transplant, or die. As a mother, this frightened me. My daughter was just a few weeks old, and my son was only four. I was terrified. I did not want to die and leave my children without a mother.
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The Great Equalizer: My Life as a Kidney Kid and Beyond
There comes a time in people's lives when they face a tragedy, a life-changing moment or string of events. It is how individuals handle adversity that will truly define them. It shows the world what they are made of and what their mark on their loved ones, their community, and even the universe, will be.
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The Little Engine That Could: My Life as a Kidney Patient With Lupus
How would you describe your life? Has it turned out as you expected? Has life taught you some lessons along the way? These thoughts often cross my mind.
The diagnosis of lupus came in 1988 during my junior year of college. I was only 20. Systemic lupus is an autoimmune disease that causes the body's immune system to go a bit haywire, harming its own cells. Lupus can attack any of the vital organs. In my case, it attacked my kidneys.
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The “Cookie Lady”
How many cookies does it take to get from Hawaii to Denver, the site of 2004 annual Renal Support Network (RSN) National Patient Meeting? To find out the answer, we asked Marsha Hatakeyama, the official “cookie lady” and fellow member of weKAN.
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Valerie's Story
My introduction to ESRD first occurred when I was in the ER and the attending Physician came into my “room” patted me on my knee and ever so nicely asked me, “Have we ever had renal failure before?” To which I sarcastically quipped, “No, WE have not”! That twisted sense of humor was to be my saving grace throughout my forthcoming journey.
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What is Being Done to Increase the Supply of Donor Organs?
Mr. Undis has focused on a significant problem in the United States. The number of candidates on the deceased donor organ waiting list is increasing at a faster rate than the number of deceased organ donors. His solution is to change the organ allocation system so that those candidates who have indicated that they are organ donors for at least six months prior to their need for an organ go to the top of the waiting list, an "A" list so to speak. All others are in a second category, a "B" list. They would only receive an organ if there are any still remaining after the needs of the "A" list are addressed.
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