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Here's a short version of my life-story:

There I was, a happy, footloose and fancy-free 27 year old, taking flying lessons, with vague ideas about being a bush
pilot in Alaska (or even Australia). Turns out, to get my private pilot's license, I needed at least 20 hours of solo time in the aircraft. And for that, the FAA required a medical clearance. I happily stopped by the doctor's office, eager to get flying solo, and sure that this was just a formality. The doctor, however, told me, "The stick test of your urine shows massive protein loss. You need to get this cleared up by a specialist, and come back later."

So at the nephrologist's office, I learnt that what I had was FSGS (focal segmental glomerulo sclerosis), and that my kidneys were failing - at the time of diagnosis, they were already down to about 70% capability.The reason for my kidney ...

Tags: nxstage training

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Training with NxStage

Ok, so this is not the post of the 1000 mile away camping trip, but I just want to let everyone know I have finally posted some videos on youtube.com.

I started making videos after I had so many family, friends and co workers ask me what it’s like to be on dialysis. I have also read some post were people say, I wish I could see how somebody secures needles during nocturnal dialysis.
So here they are, I posted the first 10 videos on youtube under my user name of dialysisdan. Just go to youtube and search for dialysis dan or use this link to my channel.

www.youtube.com/dialysisdan

I will post more as I make them, or let me know if you would like to see something. Thank you if you view them and please rate them so I can get more hits when someone searches for dialysis. My motivation is not to be famous, just to “Raise the Bar of home dialysis”. ...

Tags: nxstage videos , traveling nxstage

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Traveling With NxStage

I have found over the year and a half of being the NxStage partner that being organized is a critical component of success. Hopefully some of our strategies may prove useful to others. It is easy to focus on the treatments, but home dialysis is really about far more!

Inventory management really benefits from some attention to detail. My first step in organization was to create inventory sheets for each set of supplies. NxStage provides one for the NxStage deliveries. I have added a third column to this sheet indicating exactly what I want delivered. When I left it up to NxStage to decide what to send, I found that their calculations did not always meet our needs! After all, they have no idea about any special scheduling issues that we will be having. This is especially important to us, since we go camping frequently and need to take bags with us when we go. Now, if there is ...

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Home Dialysis

It's been a busy week, by the end of the day after we leave the center and talk about what, how and who and go to dinner, I'm ready for bed. Today's Friday and I'm at my daughter's until Sunday morning so I'm going to try and catch up.

It’s been a great week stopping at three dialysis centers in Merritt Island, Fort Pierce, and Coral Springs, Florida. Turn out has been great we’ve talked to prospective dialyzors, family, staff and doctors as well as other NxStage users. Two days I set up in the center lobby and I was able to greet and talk with dialyzors coming in and going off treatments and the staff, some who had never seen the cycler in operation were just amazed at the simplicity and ease of set up and how smooth the treatments run.

I met one couple that was just finishing up their training and were getting ready to go home for their first treatment. Like ...

Tags: harvey wells , harvey wells blog , harveys road trip 2010 , nxstageusers blog

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Harvey's Road Tour 2010

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We left our home in Euless, Tx about 315p today. I wanted to leave at 10a - delayed until noon - convinced Peg to get off work early. We've been in rain the entire time.

Our first stop is in Vicksburg where we'll spend the night at an RV park across the street from the temptations of a casino - not that I'm ever tempted. Tomorrow morning I'm meeting with a fellow NxStage User, a 26 yr old dializer that has dealt with renal failure since he was 7 yrs old....several transplants, P.D., graduated top of his class in high school, he was a double major at Louisiana Tech where he graduated with honors - - ALL while on dialysis! He recently moved into his own apartment....and he is single ladies!! This guy LIVES with kidney failure and HE is an inspiration to me. I'm hoping to meet his father tomorrow. I've met this dializer a couple of times in the past year.

I hope ...

Tags: harveys florida tour 2010 , harveys road tour

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Harvey's Road Tour 2010