Search Results for: Wearable Artificial Kidney

Dialysis: Back to the future with implantable artificial kidney

Hello and welcome to my first post for the New Year.  I hope you had a good Christmas and celebrated the arrival of 2011 in a style that set the tone for the year ahead.  My New Year was easy-going: we went to see The King’s Speech at the movies on New Year’s Eve, followed by a drive to Falls Creek, Victoria’s biggest alpine resort on New Year’s Day.  We stayed overnight and I was back in time for the BigD the next day.

The King’s Speech was a great movie: fabulous acting by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush and an inspiring message about how persistence and courage can win you back your life (a familiar theme, and not just for stammerers). (more…)

Hello ‘Wearable Kidney’; Goodbye Dialysis Machine?

August was a big month for the BigD community. Early in the month, Dr. Christopher Chan, medical director of Home Hemodialysis at Toronto General Hospital’s University Health Network announced the results of a study of 1,239 patients over 12 years that showed that kidney patients who received home hemodialysis treatments lived as long as those who got kidney transplants from donors.

As has been found before, the study confirms that the more often the dialysis, the better the cardio-vascular health (weight is stable, which reduces impact on the heart) and quality of life. (more…)

“Tinkerer” builds his own Dialysis Machine

At various times, I wish we were a little more advanced with the BigD. I wish for access without needles, wearable artificial kidneys and stem cell therapy to regrow a healthy kidney. I am sure they will arrive, eventually.

But once I get over my impatience, reality sets in and I realise how lucky I am to be alive right now, when dialysis has not only been invented but is the streamlined, readily reproducible treatment I take for granted. And to some extent, the same goes for transplants. Today, no-one expects to die from kidney failure, they just (just?) go on dialysis and line up for a transplant. (more…)

Dialysis needling: if at first…

 

Buttonholes

Buttonholes!

Josie (not her real name) emailed me recently about a problem she had getting one of her needles in:

 

Hi Greg

I hope you don’t mind me getting in touch. My name is Josie, I live in the UK and started home haemo a few months ago. I have had a problem with my fistula tonight and because it is Friday night here I can’t get hold of any of the nurses from my training unit, and having followed your blog I thought I could seek your advice… as I say, I hope you don’t mind me doing so. (more…)