Taking Care of Mom

Friday, July 6, 2012

Telling The Story of Kidney Dialysis To Transplant

It will take me a great deal of time to tell you my mother's story. Being a full-time caregiver of a person who is on dialysis and then making the blessed transition to receiving a kidney transplant is not an easy road.
Our journey is seven years long and still going.
I want to tell you the most important thing you can do is keep up your research online not only about medical advances but, also natural health advances. Do not be afraid to ask questions. Do not be afraid to get a second, third, fourth, fifth opinion .

I have learned that most doctors will not give you all of your options, you have to research them and advocate for them.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Perfect Help at Mayo Clinic

While I am updating and gathering the news from my mom's recent transplant annual visit.
I want to take a moment to note something special.
We want to send a special thank you to the Escort Staff in Mayo General Service Transport supervised by Steve Tibbon. If you do not know what they do, let me tell you, Mayo has several interconnected buildings. They are to name a few : Mayo Clinic, Rochester Medical, Eisenberg, Hilton, Charlton... I can go on and on.

By the way, they are building more. These great people are dispatched to push people on wheel chairs and hospital beds to all of their clinic appointments.

My mother recently had a long hospitalization related to pnuemonia and her kidneys had temporarily shut down. While she was in Rochester for 31 days. She had the opportunity to see a few regular escorts who took her to all of her appointments. This was one of the times when she was feeling her worst and just terribly ill.

I am mentioning the following three escorts because they were exceptionally kind and patient during her stay. She was very weak and needed extra time to have the strength to be transported. Lance Ihrke and Micheal Grob were truly wonderful. They made her feel at ease going to her appointments which is important when you do not already feel well. Taking a moment to display kindness and patience can go a long way in helping someone to feel better and less tension. My mother Rita truly appreciates their great demeanor and can't say enough about how wonderful they are.

We have previously written kudos about John Johnson. When my mom was recently an outpatient on this recent visit ending on 6/27, Mr. Johnson was training a new escort. We are glad that you are choosing your best to be the training example in assisting patients.

Maybe Mr. Tibbon can email a picture of the team to be posted on this blog. jmawriter@yahoo.com

I will be updating in a week to tell you about moms recent visit. We are also cleaning up and changing the appearance of this blog to make it easier to see the happenenings.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Left Leg Healed After Great Toe Amputation

I am currently working on the video project to show the healing of my mother's left foot. She had the great toe amputated 2 years ago and this is our second bout with amputation. The first bout was with her right foot. ( See Video on right side bar)

She had an ingrown toenail, that led to an infection that got into the bone.

The great toe was removed.

She at first had a balloon stent placed in her leg. She noticed no difference in feeling in her leg shortly after the procedure. Your leg should feel warrmet or some form of increased circulation after a stent. If not it should be re-checked to make sure.

In our case they had to go higher up and do a femoral stent. It opened up the blood flow to the foot, thus allowing it to heal in good time.

Take care of your ingrown toe nails. This is a big lesson for those with diabetic feet.

Monday, November 2, 2009

We have a new nurse coordinator

Since 2005 we have had many nurse coordinators at Mayo. We now have Mindy and Barbara.
I appreciate being able to call with a concern about mom's health and always know they have the best answer. Living with a kidney transplant is a challenge. They do not show everything on the news. they make life look so happy after transplant and it is not really. You suffer from medication side effects, mood changes and some days you dont know if you will have your strength. Mom is a trooper. We ride through health changes everyday.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

AARP

My mother's story was written in AARP Magazine.
I wish they had included the miracle of her having a kindey transplant at Mayo Clinic as well. Also Kudos to the Gonda 4 Cardiovascular Doctors and Team.
Dr. Sharonne Hayes is simply marvelous, so I am glad they mention her.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Viral Issue?

We are trying to troubleshoot the source of a gastronintestinal issue. We were told with tyope II diabetes will come some stomach gastric pumping issues with age.
But she recently had the flu vaccine and noticed symptoms afterwards. Very few researhers admit to gastroenteritis after the flu vaccine but my personal observation makes me believe that there can be.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Moms foot doing well

I am working on a video presentation to show you the newest healing in the left foot
We have saved another foot from below ankle amputation.

Thank You Mayo Women's Heart Health Clinic - Rochester MN

Our First journey to Mayo Clinic was on 5/17/2004.
My mother had a low ejection fraction. She needed to receive a cardiac clearance to be placed on the kidney transplant list.
Her doctors in the Womens Heart Clinic at Mayo, helped her to feel well again and her recent electrocardiogram results shows good results.
My mother was blessed with being assigned to Dr. Sharonne Hayes and her assistant and Nurse Practicioner, Dalene Bott- Kittslaar.
In "Taking Care Of Mom", it is described in detail how Dr. Hayes helped improve my mother's heart function. She made it possible for her to be well to be placed on the kidney transplant list. We are forever greatful for knowing her and Dalene.
We would like to thank the following doctors who particpated in the care of her heart:
Dr. Sharonne Hayes,
Dalene Bott-Kittslaar( nurse practicioner and assistant to Dr. Hayes), Dr. Raymond Shields, Dr. Amy Williams.
My mother had 3 angiograms at St. Mary's Mayo Hospital. The doctors and nursing team there give superior care and were extremely attentive to her.
Dr. Raymond Shields helped care for my mother when she has a blood clot in her right hand and helped her to save her fingers when a hospital in Illinois wanted to remove them.
Dr. Amy Williams helped us through many difficulties with dialysis and dealing with the many mysteries of end stage renal disease. Her intervention helped my mother to feel better while on dialysis.

Thank You Circulator Boot Corporation

Thank You
Joe Mackowski
Maggie Macguiren Of Circulator Boot Corporation

You didn't know me from Adam, yet,you took all the time in the world to help a total stranger calling you from off the internet to help save her mother from an amputation.
You helped point me in the right direction.
You educated me about The Circulator Boot
( http://www.circulatorboot.com/).

You helped refer
me to:
Dr. Thom W. Rooke, Dr. Steven J. Kavros, Dr. John Filip (Bryn Mawr Hospital Philadephia), Dr. Horowitz ( Diabetic Foot Clinic, Jacksonville Florida).

You work so hard each day to help people save their life and limb. My goal is to tell every doctor I meet about how wonderful you are.

Another intregal part of her foot open wound healing was
Mist Therapy by Celleration Inc. (www.Celleration.com) .

Thank You Mayo Gonda 4 Circulation Boot Department

We wish to thank Dr. Thom W. Rooke,
Head Section of Vascular Medicine Gonda Vascular Center, Krehbiel Professor of Vascular Medicine Mayo Clinic College of Medicine.

We also wish to thank Dr. Steven J. Kavros, Associate Professor, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine.

Thanks to their intervention her two toe amputation has almost completely healed through circulation boot therapy and MIST Therapy by Celleration, Inc (www.Celleration.com) . She was formerly a candidate for a below knee amputation. We decided against having amputation.

Dr. Rooke and Dr. Kavros has carefully monitored and cared for my mother. Each day as I see her foot, I feel blessed to know she has two great doctors treating her. They have helped save her leg.

They have a wonderful team working in the circulation boot therapy room dedicated to helping people.

We wish to thank many of the team members.

Cindy Felty( Nurse and Assistant to Dr. Rooke),Tanya Oberg(physical therapist), James Ross(physical medicine technician, Steve Hanna( physical therapist,Sandy Wood, Linda Koski, Andrea Bradford, Sarah Ferdin, Melissa Redig. We have not yet named all of the team members. Please check back for more names to be added to this list.

We wish to thank Mary Ellen Easley for her excellent follow-up of monitoring my mother's coumadin levels.
This is essential with preventing further blood clots.
We also wish to thank Paul Denziel ( Charlton 9) of the infectious disease divsion. He followed my mother closely in the beginning, monitoring her white blood cell count and her antibiotics which helped with infection control while her wound was healing.

Why I created this page.

I built this page to spread the word about caring for a mother with several complex health issues, My mother has cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure, diabetes, blood thinning issues, and is a kidney transplant recipient as of 12/14/05. Since her illnesses onset in fall of 2003. I have worked diligently to advocate for proper medical care. Being from Chicago,Illinois a place with 8 teaching hospitals. We chose to leave to go several states away to Mayo Clinic
( Rochester, MN).

In Illinois we had nothing but medical heart ache and dealt with medical service providers who had little or no answers.

Illinois had too poorly trained phelebotismists and nurses making egregious errors that almost killed my mother.

I can breathe easier having her medical care at Mayo Clinic. Visiting Mayo speaks for itself. It is crowded year round, through rain sleet or snow. The license plates of people driving from all over the United States and the buses carrying people from all over the world to the clinic.

I do not want for anyone to endure the suffering we have been through. Do not let an inexperienced doctor tell you that you have to accept a droppping heart ejection fraction. You do not have to have doctors constantly tell you with coldness " Well your kidney has already failed so the drugs won't harm you."

You deserve to be treated like you are going to live instead of being treated like you are going to die.

I am passionate about bird dogging big pharma and AMA to be treated with being presented with all of my options, not just the options that my insurance will cover.

In addition we fought to avoid a below knee amputation. We learned that amputation is not a sole option. You have other options to save your leg. Research, learn and advocate.