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Insights with Jack: Who Do You Rely On?

2024-03-29T01:50:35+00:00October 2nd, 2014|Categories: Patient's Voice|

By Jack Reynolds, DPC Board Member and Patient Ambassador This Christmas of 2014, I will have completed four decades of in-center hemodialysis. As this amount of time surviving with a kidney machine as a life partner is fairly rare, I feel that it would be a good idea to discuss or maybe vent my soul about my experience as a dialysis citizen and how it has affected my outlook on life. I plan to keep my blogs fairly short and to only touch on one or two points of interest or boredom, as the case may be, for anyone who reads [...]

Its a Shoo In!

2024-03-29T02:08:05+00:00June 30th, 2014|Categories: Get Involved, Patient's Voice|

Meet Darrel Ratliff, who continues to run his shoe repair business while also being an in-center dialysis patient.  Darrel was a diabetic for many years until lab tests in 2009 revealed values his doctor did not like.  He was immediately admitted to the hospital and given two dialysis treatments that day.  Results of a subsequent needle biopsy determined only four percent kidney function.  Darrel has struggled with many health setbacks such as anemia, infection scares and allergies.  He jokingly states that he must now follow a dialysis diet and that means, “if it tastes good, spit it out!” Darrel doesn’t [...]

Giving Tuesday: What Can We as Dialysis Patients Give?

2024-03-29T02:08:07+00:00December 6th, 2013|Categories: Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage, Patient's Voice, What is Kidney Disease?|Tags: |

By James Myers, DPC Patient Ambassador On the website for the Polycystic Kidney Foundation, there is an announcement about Giving Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013. It says you can give one of three ways: your voice, your time or your dollars. As a dialysis patient, I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any money. But two things that I have a lot of are voice and time, and I am more than happy to lend those to the cause of defeating PKD. I can honestly say that having an invisible fatal illness has colored every decision that I have [...]

Has the ACA Expanded Medicare’s Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Kidney Transplant Recipients?

2024-03-29T02:08:08+00:00November 18th, 2013|Categories: Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage, Patient's Voice|

By Jim Myers, DPC Patient Ambassador. I had a conversation with my doctor last week. (My nephrologist, Dr. Vavilala, we call him Dr. V). He asked me if I had heard anything during my last trip to Washington, D.C. about an extension of coverage through the ACA to kidney transplant patients of the immunosuppressive drug coverage beyond the 36 month period that currently exists. This rang a bell in the back of my brain, so I decided to check it out. Every transplant patient or transplant candidate knows the current status of the law. If you are a kidney transplant [...]

How Engaged Are You?

2024-03-29T02:08:08+00:00November 7th, 2013|Categories: Patient's Voice|

Meshia Adams By Meshia Adams, DPC Patient Ambassador If you asked me if I was an engaged patient, I would tell you yes. I can tell you what my last lab values are; I am compliant with taking my medications and see my doctors on a regular basis. I consider myself to be a responsible patient who is closely involved in my healthcare needs. I haven’t always been active in my care or engaged as a patient. In the beginning, I was in a state of denial and was convinced my doctor had it wrong. Over the years, [...]

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