By Miriam Lippel Blum
There are 29 days left to make your comments to CMS regarding the proposed payment rules. Make your voice heard! It matters.
Here are the CKD related blogs updated since my last report on 11/15. 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 points out the foolishness of the House's Health Reform Act trying to pay for immunosuppression by insisting that oral drugs be included in the ESRD bundle.
- Kamal Shah's Blog Kamal's vitamin D level is very, very low and he will get a supplement now but worries what other damage this has caused him.
- Kaply, Inc. Tracy announces her new, improved blogsite at www.kaplyinc.com is ready and if you wish to continue reading her then change your bookmark.
- Toastiest Toastie feels embattled by unfulfilling work, frustrating dialysis, and no life goals that interest him, he posts a picture of his cat to cheer himself up; figures out an app on his beloved iphone that allows him to live-blog while on dialysis; notes the deaths of two minor celebrities.
- Hasten down the wire Michael would like to expose and penalize politicians who take money from the healthcare lobby and do not vote in the interest of the American people (As the saying goes "Whose bread you eat, their song you'll sing."); reveals the cynicism and irony in the fact that Big Pharma is raising drug prices to offset any savings expected by the healthcare bill. (I agree with you, Michael, and here's a prime example. Yesterday, my AARP Medicare Part D plan run by United Healthcare sent me a notice that on Jan. 1, 2010 the cost of a generic medication, midodrine, that I must take to raise my dangerously low blood pressure and for which there is no alternative has gone from a $7.00 copay to $42.00. A six-fold increase!)
- The Life of a 20-Something With Lupus Flo took a study break and went to a party; describes the weird behavior of an addict on the train; shares photos of her dialysis machine and all the boxes and supplies in her room, hopes to get it better organized sometime with some help from her Dad.
- On the Road to a Lupus Cure The Lupus Foundation of America's webchat is next Monday afternoon, November 23, at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. The guest expert is Dr. Sam Lim on the topic of "Medication Adherence."
- I Am. Are you? posts an excellent comic about organ donation; kidney transplant recipient, Michelle, shares thoughts about sharing in the latest chapter from the Illinois Donor Diaries.
- The Ins and Outs of Dialysis John's fistula gets an angioplasty to widen vessel narrowing; he likes his internist and his other doctors who act as a supportive team, but so much time is taken up by appointments and dialysis, a photo of his internist having fun with several John masks.
- Linda Gromko MD kidneycare Linda profiles an amazing 79-year old dialysis caregiver, Gloria Lomax, who dialyzes her husband at home; Steve has some more cardiac rehab to do before he can have another transplant but some people have been tested as possible donors, no matches yet because of antibody issues, pain is caused by people offering to donate and then not following through. (Don't offer unless you mean it.)
- Precious Bodily Fluids links to a commentary at KevinMD on the results of the ARBITER 6-HALTS study showing that treatment with niacin is a more effective way of slowing atherosclerosis in high-risk patients on long-term statin therapy than seeking additional LDL cholesterol reductions by adding ezetimibe (Zetia); describes a case of secondary hyperparathyroidism treated successfully with Vitamin D.
- Renal Fellow Network Posts about diagnosing reset osmostat; Leptospirosis-induced renal failure; kappa versus lamda light chains in paraproteinemias; the ASTRAL trial comparing renal revascularization to medical therapy found no benefit and substantial increased risk.
- UKidney A study indicates that many CKD children are not appropriately treated for hypertension, which puts them at serious risk of developing heart disease; illegal organ trafficking in China is more active than ever despite efforts to crack down on the trade;
- Renal tsar's blog comments on the importance of diagnosing depression in those with CKD and newly published guidelines to assist in this endeavor.
- Dialysis and Me Barry starts his new exercise routine and shares what he has learned so far, gets help from a website that helps track your experience.
- Kidney Notes - Exploring the Intersection of Medicine and Technology links to a post by Matt Haughey about his brain tumor diagnosis. (Quite a story!)
- The inner game of PKD Richie feels that that there are PKD patients that may need a level of connection with other patients that social sites don’t provide.
- 3 1/2 Hours of Free Cable reflects on the expectations he had of how he would use his time after his last transplant and the reality of how he spent it.
- Michael W. Newman Care for the more acute patients being treated at Michael's understaffed clinic delays his take-off procedure.
- Kidney Community Emergency Response announces that their next in-person summit meeting will be held on April 13, 2010.
- Renal BizBlog The FDA warned Shire that a brochure it has been sending patients about the phosphate binder Fosrenol is misleading.
- Unfiltered Hope Sara chronicles the first few days after Darren's transplant. After a slow start, the kidney seems to be waking up but still isn't functioning well enough yet, and their three-year old daughter, Alice, comes to visit her Dad in the hospital.
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