"Medication Reconciliation: A Practical Guide  For Dialysis and Transplant Patients"
By Matt Schonder , RPh, MBA, and Kristina Schonder, PharmD
We’ve all heard the stories about people who were given the wrong medication or the wrong dose of medication in the hospital. These stories often have devastating outcomes, and people become scared of the care that is being provided by healthcare workers.
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Medication Reconciliation: A Practical Guide For Dialysis and Transplant Patients
We’ve all heard the stories about people who were given the wrong medication or the wrong dose of medication in the hospital. These stories often have devastating outcomes, and people become scared of the care that is being provided by healthcare workers.
Fast Food Facts
Quick-service restaurants provide us with a quick, easy, inexpensive bite when we’re pressed for time.
If you are a regular through the drive-up window or frequently dine in at fast food restaurants, keep these tips in mind:
Understanding the Process and Participating in Your Own Healthcare is Key to a Successful Kidney Transplant
An effective organ placement system requires a great deal of communication, planning, cooperation, and trust among the candidate, the transplant coordinators, social workers, nephrologists, and surgeons. Candidates for a kidney transplant are best served if they participate in advanced planning, understand the process, and are forthcoming with their transplant teams.
My 'I Can' Attitude Has Guided Me Through the Rough Time of Kidney Failure
I feel strongly about it and often say that "everyone has a story." This is usually followed by someone telling me how boring and mundane their lives have been. I used to be like that until I sat back and took a close look at my own life.
Holiday of Hope at Staples Center
There were caramel apples and cookies to decorate, games to play and music to dance to, but the fun really started when world-famous comedian George Lopez and Los Angeles Lakers star Kwame Brown, hosts of the 3rd Annual Holiday of Hope at Staples Center, showed up to give interviews and autographs. Crowds of kids bombarded Kwame and George for autographs on programs, admittance tags, photos, t-shirts and even elbows-and to have their photos snapped with their heroes!
Valerie's Story
My introduction to ESRD first occurred when I was in the ER and the attending Physician came into my “room” patted me on my knee and ever so nicely asked me, “Have we ever had renal failure before?” To which I sarcastically quipped, “No, WE have not”! That twisted sense of humor was to be my saving grace throughout my forthcoming journey.
Diabetes Mellitus - Knowing Your Dialysis Treatment Numbers
[If you have end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and are on dialysis, you will need regular monitoring by your renal healthcare team staff. Your treatment can be effectively assessed by using the "numbers" obtained from the many blood and other tests that are regularly taken.
A Nephrologist as a Cancer Patient Finds Enlightenment in a Support Group
Lessons learned about health and illness came not from an extremely busy nephrology practice, but, for me, from becoming a sarcoma (cancer) patient. It started in my thigh but metastasized to my lungs. After intensive chemotherapy and two major chest surgeries, I had a new respect for health, and realized that the experience of battling malignancy paralleled that of being a kidney patient. In fact, my dialysis and transplant patients were my source of inspiration, and still are.
What Can Patients Do to Delay the Progression to Complete Kidney Failure?
Your doctor has just informed you that you have chronic kidney disease (CKD). Rather than being a specific diagnosis, CKD means that your kidney function is not completely normal for someone of your age, gender, and race. In CKD, some of the filtering units of the kidneys are not functional. Because of that, the remaining filtering units are working "overtime" in a compensatory attempt to maximize kidney function. While this is helpful in the short run, continued overworking of the filtering units over time may lead to scarring and progressive failure.
A Peaceful Mission Silenced
Seventeen years ago, I met Joey--a man who changed my life forever. We became not only partners in life, but in advocacy for ourselves and others who, like ourselves, had to live an effective life while dodging disease and its complications and treatment. We also had to learn to remain positive about our life's journey, to love, learn, and do for others what we had to do for ourselves.
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"As of now, I've started my fifth year on dialysis. I have a good life. I'm happy, content and I'm only 86 years young, going on 87!"
-Mildred Doney, Montana
Excerpt from RSN's 2007 Essay Contest
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