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About Hannah Bracamonte

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So far Hannah Bracamonte has created 590 blog entries.

Don’t take Your Mental Health for Granted

2024-03-28T21:06:27-04:00September 18th, 2014|Categories: eNews, Lifestyle, Mental Health, Quality of Life|

End stage renal disease (ESRD) or kidney failure is the end of your kidney function, not your life.  As a result, the DPC Education Center entered into an exciting new collaboration with the American Psychological Association (APA).  We recently held our first joint webinar and Regional Meeting in Detroit. Click here to view the recorded webinar. The diagnosis of stage 5 kidney disease or ESRD can be devastating.  Grieving the loss of your kidney function is normal as long as it does not interfere with living your life to the fullest. Typically, the doctors focus on the physical aspects of your [...]

September is Disaster Preparedness Month

2024-03-28T21:06:28-04:00September 18th, 2014|Categories: eNews, Lifestyle, Quality of Life, Staying Healthy, Stress Management|Tags: |

Are you prepared for any disaster that might impact your life or your ability to dialyze?  Depending on where you live, there are many different types of disasters.  You and your family should have a plan in place and practice your plan so that when the need arises, you can stay calm and be prepared. You also should have alternative plans and specific means to communicate any changes that might occur.  Dialysis clinics are required to provide disaster plans to their patients and practice drills.  Your dialysis team will instruct you how to take yourself off of your dialysis machine if [...]

Setting up Your Home Dialysis Unit without Feeling like You’re Living in an ICU: Tackling the Storage Problem

2024-03-28T21:06:29-04:00May 28th, 2014|Categories: Home Hemodialysis|

By Linda Gromko, MD and Jane C. McClure, Interior Designer When Linda and her husband, Steve Williams, brought Steve’s dialysis machine home, they felt reasonably confident about the mechanics of home dialysis. But the next day – when sixteen cubic feet of dialysis supplies arrived, they felt overwhelmed! After all, who has even one extra storage closet just waiting to be used? How could they incorporate all this “stuff” into their already busy household? Sound familiar? (Now, it’s true that the newer procedure of preparing dialysate from tap water and storing a couple of batches under the machine will minimize the sheer quantity [...]

Mental Health Awareness Month

2024-03-28T21:06:30-04:00May 5th, 2014|Categories: eNews, Mental Health|

Mental health is defined by the World Health Organization as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community. Mental health disorders are common in the United States, and each year approximately one quarter of the population suffers from one or more disorders.  Mental health is a taboo subject in American culture.  Many individuals are afraid to ask for help when they feel low or overwhelmed due to the stigma associated [...]

Setting up Your Home Dialysis Unit without Feeling like You’re Living in an ICU: Designing Your Home Dialysis Unit

2024-03-28T21:06:31-04:00April 10th, 2014|Categories: eNews, Home Hemodialysis|

By Linda Gromko, MD and Jane C. McClure, Interior Designer This is the third of a four-part series on “Setting Up Your Home Dialysis Unit Without Feeling like You’re Living in an ICU!” We’ve already covered “Top Ten Considerations,” and “Setting Up with Safety First.” In this entry, we discuss the very basics of setting up your unit. Next time, we’ll address storage! The whole process of dialyzing at home can be daunting at first, but the benefits are well worth the effort. Dialyzing at home can provide the ultimate in personal flexibility – plus, more dialysis and more frequent dialysis [...]

Tickets Available Now for Inaugural Gala

2024-03-28T21:06:31-04:00March 19th, 2014|Categories: eNews|

Tickets are now available to purchase for DPC Education Center's Inaugural Gala on March 11, 2014. This year, we are extremely excited to honor a health care professional with the “Willem J. Kolff Award for Innovation and Patient Care.”  Dr. Kolff was honored at DPC’s Gala in 2006 for inventing the dialysis machine.  As a result, we decided to name this award after him, and are excited that his son will be attending to present the award. In addition to the health care proffesional, a dialysis patient will also be recognized for his continued work to educate patients and assist with [...]

Join Us In The Fight Against Kidney Disease!

2024-03-28T21:06:32-04:00March 19th, 2014|Categories: eNews, News & Events, What Is Kidney Disease|

Do you want to help make a difference in the lives of millions of Americans through kidney disease education? Join the DPC Education Center's first annual National Kidney Month Fundraising Drive! The DPC Education Center is making great strides toward becoming the leading resource for kidney patients, family members and members on the hill to learn about dialysis and chronic kidney disease. With only two weeks left in National Kidney Month, now is the time to help us continue to provide extensive resources to patients and families to help curb the spread of this debilitating illness. We have a great program to [...]

Have you “saved the date”?

2024-03-28T21:06:33-04:00January 27th, 2014|Categories: eNews|

Preparations are in full swing for the DPC Education Center’s Inaugural Gala.  We will honor the people you nominated for our Patient Award and our Healthcare Professional Award.  The fundraising event will start with a “step and repeat” on the red carpet, followed by a meet & greet.  We expect sponsors, patients, policy decision makers and others to join together for this first-time event!  Entertainment will be provided by a popular local jazz pianist.  A short program to honor our awardees and dinner will follow.  Tickets are $500 per person and you will receive a charitable gift receipt for the cost [...]

DPC Education Center’s Inaugural Gala

2024-03-28T21:06:34-04:00January 24th, 2014|Categories: Blog|

DPC Education Center’s (The Center) Annual Gala will be our first and we aspire to build good will and engage individuals for current and future philanthropic support.  However, is not simply a celebration, more importantly, it is an effort to generate critical funds for kidney dialysis patient education. We are committed to reducing and avoiding End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) by addressing unmet needs and providing tools to empower dialysis patients. The Center’s Inaugural Gala will be an opportunity for those who support our mission to come together, celebrate and learn more about our programs.  Our venue will be the very [...]

Exciting News from the Bloodstream Infection (BSI) Prevention Collaborative

2024-03-28T21:06:35-04:00January 23rd, 2014|Categories: eNews, Lifestyle|Tags: , , |

Since 2011, DPC has been involved with the BSI Prevention Collaborative and was the first patient group to participate and attended the inaugural meeting in November 2011. The primary goal of the collaborative is preventing bloodstream infections in hemodialysis patients with the secondary role of increasing awareness in the dialysis community. The group is open to most outpatient dialysis facilities throughout the United States and other community partners. Facilities that participate get access to best practices from experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and from others who are directly applying safety precautions in their own clinic. Members [...]

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