It’s that time of year again! The National Kidney Foundation’s (NKF) Kidney Walk is here. The Kidney Walk is a fun, active way for people with chronic kidney disease, family members, transplant recipients, donors, donor families, friends, doctors, nurses and anyone who is interested to help raise money and awareness for kidney and urinary tract diseases. Walks will be held all over the country from now until early November. Signing up is easy and can be done online. So, if you’re interested, grab your walking shoes and get moving for kidney disease! 

Learn more about the NKF’s Kidney Walk or find a walk near you!

Katie Siesennop is a transplant recipient living in Troy, MO. Before receiving her transplant in December 2007, Katie was on peritoneal dialysis. This is her story.

“I had a kidney transplant in September 1998. In 2005, my blood pressure kept rising and nobody knew why. A biopsy in August determined a virus had attacked the kidney, and I had to start dialysis. The doctors put me on hemodialysis but my blood pressure remained high. In September, it rose so high I had a seizure and the kidney was removed. Each time I visited the doctor, a new blood pressure medicine was added until I was taking five of them. Almost every time I was taken off the machine, I had to sit and wait for the blood pressure to come down before I could leave to go home.   I had heard of peritoneal dialysis. I was told I wouldn’t have to come to the center three days per week for four hours at a time, but I was scared and didn’t want to have more surgery. Eight months later a guy my age came into my hemodialysis unit, but he was switching to peritoneal dialysis (PD) and it struck me, ‘Hey, if this guy can do it, so can I.’ I talked to my doctor, and he was worried because I don’t have a kidney. He wasn’t sure it would work for me.   A month later, I began PD. I no longer had to worry about finding a ride to my treatments, being home on time when my son got off the bus or hearing talk of putting the line in my arm. Not long after, my days were free, and my treatments were done by machine while I slept. What’s better is that my blood pressure was 110/70, and I only took one medicine.   

PD also made going on vacation easier. The PD supply company delivered my dialysis solution to the hotel before I arrived. I brought my machine. My nurse contacted a center nearby in case I had a problem, and I had the freedom to see the sights all day.”

Ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll tell you I’m horrible at making decisions. Whether I’m deciding on a new breakfast cereal or a new car, decisions have never come easy to me so I can only imagine how hard it would be to decide on something as monumental as a dialysis treatment!

If you’re having trouble deciding which dialysis treatment is right for you, DaVita has developed a tool that can help. The Treatment Evaluator is a tool designed to help you figure out which dialysis treatment best fits your lifestyle. The evaluator tool asks you 18 questions about your lifestyle and suggests some modalities that may be right for you.

Try out the Treatment Evaluator today!