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About Hannah Bracamonte

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So far Hannah Bracamonte has created 584 blog entries.

Maintaining Mental Health After a Kidney Transplant

2024-03-28T21:06:41-04:00April 30th, 2013|Categories: eNews, Kidney Transplant, Mental Health|

Mental health is just as important as physical health and the two go hand in hand. This shift of considering individual health as a whole mind body experience is refreshing, but the idea still needs to spread and build from a definition into a cultural mindset. Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) know that the numbers on the machine or lab printout don’t tell the entire story. Research has shown that the death rate from chronic disease such as heart disease and diabetes is two to three times greater for people living with mental illnesses.[1] As [...]

Pairing Networks for Kidney Donation

2024-03-28T21:06:43-04:00April 29th, 2013|Categories: eNews, Kidney Transplant|

Finding out that you need a new kidney can be devastating news. After the initial shock wears off, friends and family members graciously get screened and sometimes there is a good match, but sometimes there isn’t. It might seem like awful news, but focus back on the positives. You are still eligible to get a transplant and can still get an organ from a deceased donor. Oh wait there are still some new and exciting options available! Recently, pairing networks have been set up that give you even more options. The idea for creating these networks came from looking at the [...]

Getting Listed on Multiple Transplant Waiting Lists

2024-03-28T21:06:46-04:00April 29th, 2013|Categories: eNews, Kidney Transplant|

There are ways to help decrease your wait time for a kidney transplant even if you don’t have a living donor. One option is being listed on multiple transplant waiting lists at two or more centers. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) has a really in depth resource available here. Being listed in multiple places helps by giving you access to more kidneys than are available to just your transplant center. Each transplant center gives first priority to those closest to their center, but being on the list could get you a transplant sooner if local candidates with the same amount [...]

Your Diet After A Kidney Transplant

2024-03-28T21:06:46-04:00April 29th, 2013|Categories: eNews, Kidney Transplant, News & Events, Nutrition, Staying Healthy, Treatment|

After you receive a transplant, it is possible that many of the diet restrictions you had during dialysis will disappear. This however, doesn’t mean that proper nutrition is any less important.  Also, if you have other conditions like hypertension and diabetes, you will need to continue following those diet restrictions. Diet and proper nutrition become even more important because some of the immunosuppressants can also increase blood sugar levels leading to an increased risk of diabetes and increase your appetite. Also, even though many of your dialysis related restrictions go away, there are still things that you should keep doing. These [...]

How to Ask for a Living Donor

2024-03-28T21:06:47-04:00April 29th, 2013|Categories: eNews, Kidney Transplant|

Asking someone to give you a kidney is not an easy thing to do. Although it is scary, the worst case scenario is that your friends and family won’t be able to be a donor. Some of you will have no problem asking and the process will be very smooth while others will be nervous to approach others with this request. A few tips to make it easier are: Educate friends and family members about your disease and how a transplant works Think about providing information and the opportunity to connect more than just asking Don’t pressure anyone and allow [...]

Are You Cut Out to Do Home Dialysis?

2024-03-28T21:06:48-04:00April 8th, 2013|Categories: Blog, Home Hemodialysis|

By Dr. Linda Gromko, MD, Guest Blogger Hi my name is Dr. Linda Gromko and I am a Seattle family practice physician who assisted my husband Steve Williams with both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis for three-and-a-half years before his death in April 2011. In coordination with interior designer Jane C. McClure, I wrote Arranging Your Life When Dialysis Comes Home: “The Underwear Factor’ and two other books about my family’s experience with ESRD. Last month, I discussed the advantages of doing dialysis at home. There’s no doubt that home dialysis – both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis – offer the opportunity for [...]

What is Palliative Care?

2024-03-28T21:06:49-04:00March 8th, 2013|Categories: eNews, Treatment|Tags: |

Palliative care is a pretty encompassing term. The World Health Organization defines it is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness. It accomplishes this through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual. When thinking about palliative care: provides relief from pain and other related symptoms affirms life and regards dying as a process of life intends neither to hasten or postpone death integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care offers a support system [...]

March Education Webinar and Call: Tools and Techniques to Empower Yourself to Help Your Community

2024-03-28T21:06:49-04:00March 5th, 2013|Categories: eNews, Webinar|

Webinar Date: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - 3:00pm The new partnership between DPC and the DPC Education Center creates wonderful opportunities for each organization to use the skills and expertise of the other to work toward their shared goal of improving the lives of kidney disease patients. This partnership will be evident in our next Patient Education call entitled Tools and Techniques to Empower Yourself to Help Your Community, which will be held on March 26th at 2:00PM Eastern. The Center’s staff is currently developing toolkits for leading your own events such as walks or health fairs. Each kit will be [...]

Welcome Webinar

2024-03-28T21:06:50-04:00March 4th, 2013|Categories: eNews, Webinar|

Webinar Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2013 - 2:00pm This is a final reminder that the postponed DPC Education Center (The Center) Welcome Webinar is now scheduled for tomorrow Wednesday, March 20th at 1:00 pm ET. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by our postponement and hope that you can join us once again. The Center is excited to invite the kidney community to our welcome webinar and virtual open house. The Center is the new sister organization of Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) and has the broad goal of empowering patients through education. Since the organization is still in its early stages, [...]

Go Ahead, Indulge Your Sweet Tooth!

2024-03-28T21:06:51-04:00March 4th, 2013|Categories: Blog, News & Events, Nutrition, Recipes, Staying Healthy|

Since it has been a long winter, DPC would like to share a late holiday gift. What better way to take your mind off of the snow accumulation and wind chill than a couple of renal friendly dessert recipes! Dessert is often one of the first things cut from the renal diet, but this doesn’t have to be the case. Most desserts contain chocolate or milk, which are foods high in phosphorous and potassium that can lead to bone and heart problems. This does limit dessert options for kidney patients, however, we all deserve a treat every now and then. [...]

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