Dialysis & CKD Blog Report 10/31

By Miriam Lippel Blum

There are only 17 days left to get your voice heard by CMS in regard to the new proposed rule for dialysis payment. Comments on the Proposed Rule are due to CMS by end of business on November 16. Submit them here. If you don't understand how this rule might impact your dialysis care then go to the Renal Support Network's Kidney Public Policy 101 and learn.

Here are the CKD related blogs updated since my last report on 10/28. If you have or know of a blog that should be on the list let Bill know. Comments in parentheses are my reactions or opinions.

• Dialysis from the sharp end of the needle Bill reports on the the rapid spreading of the H1N1 virus.
• Kamal Shah's Blog Kamal finds that he can reduce the water he drinks if he drinks hot water instead of cold or room temperature. (A good tip for dialyzors with fluid restrictions.); after discovering that his dialysis machine had a blood leak while he slept on nocturnal dialysis, Kamal buys a Dri-sleeper which is a moisture sensor so an alarm will go off if this happens again.
• Kaply, Inc. Tracy is having vascular surgery next week and sinus surgery the week after that, she would like items of amusement while she heals; Tracy doesn't celebrate Halloween.
• Toastiest Toastie tallies the things stolen from his yard in the last three yeas; a photo of him playing with his cat on a night without dialysis.
• Becky Perry Becky is going to talk to doctor about taking meds for depression, referral to a sinus specialist. is really bothered by restless leg syndrome; her Friday Felicity feature.
• Life on dialysis ... and now life after my transplant! Holly lists all the things she has done in the year since her transplant, how great she feels now, and her plans for the next month.
• On the Road to a Cure The Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) is participating in an international online voting competition that covers major innovations in web technology and social media and would like to take the category of “Best Non-Profit Use of Social Media.” Help them win by submitting a nomination.
• I Am. Are you? shares a video entitled Organ Donation: Waiting for a Second Chance with Bill Coon's sister.  Bill just received a heart and kidney transplant.
• Transplant Alliance has a number of fanciful posts about the World of Warcraft (WOW)- fantasy game. (This was totally beyond me, but I suppose players might enjoy it.)
• Chronic Chick Talk recommends taking an inflatable mattress for comfortable sleeping on camping trips.
• Linda Gromko MD kidneycare is a new blog. Linda Gromko, MD is a family physician whose husband, Steve Williams, receives five Home Hemodialysis treatments per week. Dr. Gromko's blog explores issues of treating Renal Failure at home, making the treatments more user-friendly, and supporting the all-important caregiver in the family on Home Dialysis.  She has some posts introducing her blog.  The latest entry is her advice about getting a fistula to a patient nearing renal failure.
  
• Renal Fellow Network Nathan is presenting a "Renal Fellow Network" poster at the poster session on Saturday, 10/31 (SA-PO2863) if anybody would like to drop by & chat; PPAR alpha activators may aid in the prevention of AKI in high risk patients.
• Uremic Frost  Introduces a new website called Ureakinetics.org maintained by Chicago nephrologist Dr. John Daugirdas.It aims to provide a home for Solute-Solver and related programs linked to urea kinetics and adequacy of hemodialysis; a study shows extreme increases in muscle mass require the kidneys to increase their filtration rate, placing harmful levels of stress on these organs. It may also be likely that anabolic steroids have direct toxic effects on the kidneys; a paper was just presented at the ASN meeting in San Diego claiming younger nephrologists tend to send their patients for renal transplantation preemptively more frequently than the more senior nephrologists.
• Neophron's Senescence a video musical song in support of the public insurance option.
• pkdmom2five Amy has some advice for people who send hurtful comments anonymously over the internet. (Right on! if you don't want your words attached to your name then you probably shouldn't be sending them.)
• Dialysis and Me Barry posts about the importance of organization when you travel with dialysis; he and Laura celebrate their third anniversary and he remembered;  three videoblog entries about  their trip to Cape Canaveral, Laura reviews a Brazilian restaurant they visited.
• Kidney Notes - Exploring the Intersection of Medicine and Technology has information about the potassium in lime juice (For all those margarita drinking dialyzors out there.); a link to a controversial paper he coauthored about how bodybuilding with steroids damages kidneys
• The Ballad of Billy The Kidney links and comments on an interview with Therese Rein, wife of the Prime Minister of Australia, the Rt Hon Kevin Rudd MP.  Ms Rein had some very interesting and worthwhile things to say about identifying one's health strengths and then running with those - rather than being fixated with the negatives.
• The inner game of PKD discusses the meaning of "support" as it applies to those with PKD and finding it on the internet and elsewhere..
• Kidney Diet Tips Diet tips and recipes for Halloween.

Comments

[Lauren Cote]

I am trying to get the word out about a blood leak detection device which monitors the fistula site for VND Venous Needle Dislodgement. First clinically tested, FDA device of its kind available in the USA. Use of enuresis alarm is unreliable..and this device is specifically designed for this purpose: www.bloodleakalarm.com.