March is National Kidney Month. This topic is near and dear to my heart, as my mother has suffered renal failure and now requires dialysis. You never really appreciate your kidneys until they stop working.
Three times a week, for four hours at a time, my Mom sits in a dialysis center attached to a machine whose job it is to clean her blood. She cannot drive herself home, and in fact, she can’t do much of anything after dialysis until the next morning – it simply wipes her out. Her diet has become strict – the standard Renal diet which means to minimize phosphorus, sodium, potassium, and fluids. Do YOU know which foods have a lot of phosphorus? It is not an easy diet to learn or keep. And, for those who also have diabetes, it is a huge burden.
My Mom is not alone. There are over a dozen sitting in the same room as her, and thousands more sitting in other dialysis centers. In fact, in 2006, there were over a 350,000 people on dialysis in the United States alone. (source)
Let me introduce you to some people who think a lot about kidneys.
Boomer27 knows all to well the importance of the kidney. He explains how he has struggled with his kidney failure: How Fragile Life Can Be .
Matthew is a little boy with diabetes. He is fighting to keep his kidneys healthy. Read about Matthew’s Journey.
GramaBarb‘s sister, AnnaRuth, had to undergo dialysis. Kidney Dialysis – Finding Support. Dedicated to my sister, AnnaRuth
ConnieW was a living kidney donor to her cousin who was born with Polycystic Kidneys.
(Photo by shanelkalicharan)
