A Conversation With A Nurse (Podcast)
Mary Houglum is the type of nurse that every dialysis patient would love to have. Her compassion and desire to be a nurse came from a night nurse she had in the hospital when she was 8 years old. This program will let you hear how she takes the time to listen to her patients to answer questions, resolve issues and explain treatments. Mary tells Lori and Stephen that it is important for the patient to be open and honest with their nurses.
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A Time to Speak
In case you're wondering, Toastmasters is not where you learn the fine art of making toast for breakfast (though a lot of clubs meet at that early hour). Rather, it's a training ground for learning the fine art of public speaking.
After visiting a few Toastmasters clubs in my local area, I decided this would be a beneficial investment of my time. I chose a club and became a member.
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Adequate or Optimal Dialysis (Podcast)
A frequent term that is used in the dialysis industry is adequate dialysis. Lori and Stephen talk to Dr. Raffi Minasian on how the industry is recognizing that patients need more dialysis to feel better and improve their quality of life. Dr. Minasian explains some of the benefits of more dialysis and the barriers health care professionals encounter to be able to deliver optimal dialysis to their patients
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Caregivers - Who Loves Ya, Baby (Podcast)
This week Lori and Stephen visit with Lydia Weisman, licensed clinical social worker at South Valley Regional Dialysis Center, and Kay Goeden, caregiver to her husband Omer who is on dialysis, to talk about the importance of the caregivers in our lives. We throw our hats in the air to all of you who help us take care of ourselves! Listen with your favorite caregiver as we appreciate those who help us live healthier, happier lives. Taking care of loved ones can be a very difficult role. Sometimes we forget we’re all on the same side as we struggle through living with chronic illness. We'll discuss the issues those who take care of us have to deal with and offer tips for caregivers to take care of themselves.
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Connecting with Fellow Patients
Times have changed and so has technology. When I was diagnosed with kidney disease 34 years ago, we merely had telephones, televisions, and radios. Today, we have a new way of communicating via cell phones, text messaging, e-mail, and the Internet. No matter which method of communication you prefer, connecting is a useful tool to help learn about ways to live successfully with kidney disease.
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Connecting With Your Physician (Podcast)
The ability to communicate with your physician will make a difference in your relationship and ultimately your care! Dr. Michael Lazarus, Medical Director for Fresenius Medical Care (FMC) returns to KidneyTalk to inform patients how to connect with their physician. He will also share what physicians need from patients to make the most of their office visit. Tune in and learn a few tips on how to communicate effectively with your physician.
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Dating with Kidney Disease, and When Do You Tell? (Podcast)
Jenny is a young woman on peritoneal dialysis who has had two kidney transplants and is single. Mike, who is in his early '50s and has been out of the dating scene for a while, is currently enjoying his first transplant. Speaking from personal experience, Lori, Stephen and their guests reassure listeners that a diagnosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD) does not mean that a person cannot enjoy all of the pleasures that life has to offer, including dating and marriage. In fact, springing the news on someone that you have CKD can actually help separate the wheat from the chaff.
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Don't Sweat the Kidney Stuff! (Podcast)
On this week’s show, Lori Hartwell and Stephen Furst speak with Howard Feinberg--a dialysis social worker, psychotherapist, and kidney patient who, having been a patient for more than 25 years, can speak from a position of authority when it comes to dealing with the myriad of emotions that go hand in hand with chronic kidney disease. Do you ever get the blues? Do you ever feel down and out? Do fear and denial keep you from learning about your illness? Take comfort... you’re not alone. These emotions are common, normal, and even expected when dealing with a chronic illness. Even longtime patients such as Lori (who’s survived kidney disease for 38 years!) still go through the emotional ups and downs. “When I get my lab results and my creatinine is normal, I have a sense of relief,” says Lori. “But leading up to that, I’m still nervous and anxious.”
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Don't Wait For the World to Change (Podcast)
This week on KidneyTalk, we are on location at the Annual California Dialysis Council Meeting in Palm Springs, CA with Marc Chow, Director of Government Affairs for Satellite Healthcare and Mike Arnold, CEO of Arnold & Associates, Inc.
Mike Arnold says "Unless we're there to stand up for our community...we're forgotten about."
Ever feel that way?
In this interview Marc Chow and Mike Arnold offer their respective expertise on why it is so important for the kidney community to take a stand, get involved, and make a difference...and how. You'll find it's not as hard as you may have thought.
"Dialysis patients are different, it's a very fragile population. They need to be thought of differently, and treated differently, and must be addressed differently." Mike Arnold says.
Learn about the Kidney Care Quality and Education Act of 2007 and some of the state issues heading our way.
Be sure to tune in to this very informative interview, and make an impact that will help change kidney patients' lives...for the better.
To learn more about The California Dialysis Council please visit www.caldialysis.org.
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Donate Life Rose Parade Float - 2008
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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Enrich a Life- Share Your Knowledge
As someone with chronic kidney disease, I have found that knowledge has aided my ability to cope with my illness. If you saw me leaving the local public library, you might see just a pair of legs sticking out beneath a pile of books! I love to read, and that’s how I learn more about many different topics, including ways to live a more active life with kidney disease.
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Eyewitness Account of Kidney Donation (Podcast)
Donating a kidney to a friend or family member is becoming more common. Listen to Phillip Palmer, weekday morning anchor for KABC7 Eyewitness News in Los Angeles and hear him describe his journey of what it was like to give the "gift of life" to his good friend Dale Wade Davis. Phillip describes how he made the decision to become a living donor and what inspired him to make this decision. Don't miss this extraordinary act of kindness!
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Finding the Funny
There is nothing funny about being sick, or is there? The answer is yes and no. Surely, it's no fun having an illness, but it can be far more bearable when viewed from a humorous perspective. In fact, many professional comedians have taken real life tragedies and turned them into comedy gold. Richard Prior's bit about experiencing a heart attack is one of the funniest I've ever heard. Louie Anderson tells of growing up with an alcoholic father and he brings down the house. Robert Schimmel's routine on surviving cancer has been called "simply hilarious."
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Four Things That Matter Most
Not long ago, I heard a powerful song. In it, a man shares with his friend some insights about living that he learned while facing death. Paraphrased, he learned to love deeper, speak sweeter, and give the forgiveness he had been denying others. He expressed his hope that his friend would learn to live these truths while he still had life.
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Help Your Family Make the Kidney Connection
Twenty six million Americans have signs of kidney damage based on urine or blood tests. People of all ages and races are at risk for kidney disease, but African Americans are much more likely than other groups to develop kidney failure, which is severe kidney damage requiring treatment with dialysis or kidney transplant. In fact, African Americans are four times more likely than Caucasians to be diagnosed with kidney failure.
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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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How Can You Care For Your New Kidney Transplant?
No matter how long you have your new kidney, your body will always know that it does not belong to you and will try to attack it. As long as you have a working kidney transplant, you will be taking medicine to prevent rejection.
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How Kidney Patients Can Effectively Communicate with Their Case Managers
Renal Case Managers specialize in the delivery of care to individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Their primary role is to coordinate the continuity of care and help ensure that individuals get the proper treatment at the right time in order to maximize their outcome.
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How to Deal with Difficult Staff (Podcast)
Do you smell microwave popcorn while at dialysis? Has a nurse or technician yelled at you because of your fluid intake? Is waiting in the lobby for 30 minutes or more for your dialysis appointment acceptable? Listen to this weeks show as social worker, Ramiro Valdez, Ph.D gives advice to Lori and Stephen about how to deal with these and other situations. Learn that the staff is sometimes afraid of the patients, just as the patients are afraid of the staff.
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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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Informed, Committed, Understanding Legislators
We see our elected leaders on television, we read about them in the newspapers, and sometimes we even encounter them in person. Most of the time these elected officials are doing the talking—they tell us about themselves, their plans, their policies, and their problems.
Election season turns things around. Now, it's our turn to speak, and our leaders must listen. They know that to get our votes they will need to understand our interests and concerns.
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Laughter is Cheap Medicine
Months went by, and no laughter—only pills, doctors, and the harmonious beep-beep of the machines. I felt fragile, and worst of all, sick.
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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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Make the Most of Your Doctor Visit
I have been on this journey now for nearly 10 years. From what I have learned, I recommend that anyone with a life-threatening health condition develop a collaborative partnership with his or her doctor and medical team.
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Nutrition Tips For Enhancing the Dialysis Patient's Quality of Life
Good nutrition is a very important part of your renal treatment plan whether you are on hemodialysis (HD) or peritoneal dialysis (PD). To move forward with your best in all aspects of your life as a kidney patient, make an effort to maintain yourself by eating enough of the right kinds of foods or less of those "forbidden" foods.
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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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Seeing the Big Picture: Communicating With Your Nephrologist About Goals and Expectations
What are the expectations of my patients, and how do they compare with my own expectations of them? Is there more that we can do together to allow patients to accomplish those goals? Free and open communication is an absolute necessity if patients are to achieve their goals and not fall prey to the trap of low expectations coming either from themselves or their caregivers.
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Seize the Day: Coping With Dialysis
Your social worker is an advocate for you and is there to help you. Discuss with him/her any issues you may have regarding dialysis or receiving a transplant.
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Social Networking at the Transplant Cafe (Podcast)
Nelson Freytes went to the hospital and ended up in a coma. He awoke with a new liver. What makes this story so fascinating is he never knew he needed a transplant until he had one. Nelson wanted to connect with others and as a result created transplantcafe.com. Join us for a cup of java and hear some ways he's made his transplant work for him.
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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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Stop Thief! Protect Yourself Against Medical Identity Theft
One week after having a spot on my forehead removed by a new dermatologist, I received a notice from his office stating that their medical records had been compromised, and recommended that I put a fraud alert on my credit reports at the three major credit bureaus. So far, it appears that no one has tried to use my information to establish a new medical identity.
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The Good Dialysis Index
The "Good Dialysis Index" (GDI) potentially offers a more humane model of the dialysis patient as a whole. The GDI design attempts to mirror more closely the things that matter - not only to the nephrologist but to the patient - in the delivery of 'good dialysis'. Certainly, it serves this aim better than does the urea-centric, mathematically limited concept of Kt/V, restricted as it is to the narrow confines of small solute clearance. The GDI remains to be rigorously tested and validated as a predictive tool in the dialysis population, but it has certainly been simple and quick and easily applied when run against a small pilot patient group.
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