It’s really important that you take a part in your health information tracking. Don’t just take the lab results you’re getting from the provider and toss them aside. Keeping track of the data will help you maintain control of the levels that are out of bounds and help you stay as healthy as possible.
06/20/13: I found that the American Association of Kidney Patients has a siliar website available to help you track you health information including Doctor Visits, Medications, and Lab Results. Its open to all patients. Membership in AAKP is free for patients. You can access this portal by CLICKING HERE
Davita has a Health Portal for its patients that provides almost everything you want or need to know about you dialysis treatments and lab results. I found it particularly helpful in seeing my Phosphorus and Potassium levels that are really a bear for me to control. You can also access your health records, insurance information and assistance, the Davita Care Team (Dialysis Center) contact information. a host of patient services like travel planning. home dialysis information, diet planning, etc.
Unfortunately this is only available for Davita patients but it could be a model for other providers if they don’t have something like this already. You can read more about it or access (or sign up for) the Davita Health Portal by CLICKING HERE.
I am a person with ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) which means my kidneys don't work. Forty or so years ago that would have been a death sentence but today there is Dialysis which means I could be hooked up to a machine that would clean my blood as the kidneys should. Three days a week, I went to a dialysis center and had too very large needles stuck in my arm to remove and replace my blood as it passed through a process where it was cleaned and the fluid was removed, a process taking a little over four hours each time.
In November 2017, I received a kidney transplant from a deceased donor. My life went into overdrive. With a "new" functioning kidney, I no longer had to go to a dialysis center and my days were not open to be lived rather than recovering from dialysis which meant dialyzing for three days and resting for 4 days a week. I work full-time and often 50 hours per week. It is something I never imagined. I highly recommend it! HeeHee
I want to advance knowledge about dialysis and transplant so that others can learn from my experience and mistakes. We shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel, eh? There is so much to be learned and experienced about our predicament. There are vast resources available to support us and enrich our lives but many patients don't know about them. There are also many issues that we have to deal with whether we want to or not. So I blog about them in www.DevonTexas.com
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I also blog in LegacyTales in WordPress if you are interested in the ramblings of a Old Man. Give a peek and let me know what you think. https://legacytales.wordpress.com/
Enjoy.
A podcast where I invite guests from all walks of life to discuss their favorite movies, and we use that film as a starting point to talk about deeper issues such as faith, politics, and social issues.
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