5 Simple Steps to doing PD Successfully

This powerful, uplifting pocket book is a simple and effective tool that is an easy read. It confronts so many of the problem areas faced by PD patients, including:

• Catheter Placement
• Organizing Monthly Supplies
• How to keep Your Pets While Doing Peritoneal Dialysis
• Myth Busters and Tips to Review with Your Medical Team

The tips will not only help you with coping with peritoneal dialysis, but also will enlighten your medical team, friends, nurses, family members, and caregivers in their efforts to make life more comfortable for you.

If you or your loved one is considering doing peritoneal dialysis or recently started peritoneal dialysis, this book is a must-read!

About the Author

Sheila Shaw has been living with chronic illnesses for the past 20 years. As the CEO of Patient’s Pride, Inc., a kidney transplant recipient, and a former peritoneal dialysis patient, and after speaking with thousands of PD patients and successfully helping them support their catheters and move forward with their lives, Sheila Shaw knows from personal and professional experience how to truly get through peritoneal dialysis successfully. Sheila has dedicated her life to inspire others to live their lives to their fullest despite living with chronic illness.

Abdominal Catheter Control Elastic Support System (ACCESS)

The Abdominal Catheter Control Elastic Support System (ACCESS) was originally designed in 1998 to alleviate the unnecessary side effects a PD patient was experiencing from using tape to secure the catheter; the patient was also experiencing emotional anxiety and loss of self esteem from the obvious protrusion from the connector to the catheter. With the alleviation of the irritation to the abdominal area it was obvious that ACCESS was needed for all PD patients.

ACCESS is available in two stretchable fabrics and is custom fitted to maximize patient comfort. The cotton blend fabric is soft to the touch and the nylon fabric has the absorbent properties of a bathing suit to ideally support the catheter during showering.

Use of ACCESS discreetly insures stability of the catheter from the exit site to the connector, reduces the potential of exit site infection, and is doctor-recommended.

We are now approved providers of durable medical equipment for Medicare and accept insurance assignment, so there is no out-of-pocket expense to the patient. Call us today and we will explain how you may obtain your own custom fitted PD catheter supports at no cost.

Alcavis 50

Alcavis HDC’s mission is to offer innovative and progressive solutions for antisepsis and disinfection to healthcare professionals and self care patients in the renal markets. Our products are sodium hypochlorite-based, and manufactured via partial electrolysis to create an end product that is stable, safe, pure, and effective.

Alcavis 50, a high-level disinfectant for dialysis catheter caps and connections, can be used to disinfect central venous catheter end caps prior to hemodialysis initiation and termination as well as on the peritoneal dialysis transfer set prior to CAPD and CCPD tubing connections.

Other uses for our home population include disinfection of PD bag medication ports and medication caps for intraperitoneal injections. Alcavis 50 can be used to disinfect accidental transfer tip contaminations (dropped transfer set) and for scheduled routine transfer set changes at the dialysis clinic.

Benefits of Alcavis 50 catheter disinfectant include:

• Contact time of 2 minutes
• Compatibility with ALL catheter materials and brands
• Clear, non-staining
• Broad spectrum of germ kill
• Economical
• Bottle stable for 6 months after opening

Alcavis 50 is available in 200ml spray, 250 and 500ml size multi-dose pour bottles.

Discuss adding this product to your home dialysis delivery with your dialysis care provider or contact Alcavis HDC at 800-726-2308 ext. 114 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information on Alcavis 50.

Alcavis Bleach Wipes

Alcavis HDC’s mission is to offer innovative and progressive solutions for antisepsis and disinfection to healthcare professionals and self care patients in the renal markets. Our products are sodium hypochlorite-based, and manufactured via partial electrolysis to create an end product that is stable, safe, pure, and effective.

Alcavis Bleach Wipes provide a safe, effective, and stable dilution of bleach and purified water in a ready-packaged single or double towelette for surface disinfection.

• 1:10 dilution is an EPA registered product for high risk situations and large blood spills

Alcavis HDC—Research and Commitment in Disinfection

Anasept™

Anasept™ is a safe and gentle skin and wound antiseptic. It comes in liquid spray and thick, clear gel forms. Dialysis patients find it easy to use to clean and disinfect any exit sites. Anasept is a solution of .057% Sodium Hypochlorite in saline, and it will not irritate or stain the site or surrounding skin. Also, it is compatible (non-damaging) with all catheter materials.

Anasept is effective against a broad range of bacteria, fungi, and viruses including MRSA, VRE, Staph, Pseudomonas, and Candida, as well as many others. With proper use of Anasept, the patient can be assured that the dialysis or wound site is clean and bacteria-free.

Anasept products are over-the-counter and have a 2 year shelf life. For more clinical information, or to purchase Anasept, please call or email us.

AOSS Sure-Stop

AOSS Medical Supply now offers home dialysis users its own privately-manufactured brand of ultra-absorbent cotton applicators, known as AOSS Sure-Stop. Sure-Stop is typically used for access site closure and protection following dialysis at home or in an on-site facility. Each AOSS Sure-Stop is a 1” sphere of non-woven cotton and is packaged in a box of 50 pouches, containing two (2) spheres each.

AOSS Medical Supply inspects each custom kit for absolute quality and makes sure that each required product is consistent with each patient request. For over 26 years, AOSS Medical Supply has served the healthcare industry, and we are here to serve you, as well.

Arranging Your Life When Dialysis Comes Home

“Arranging Your Life When Dialysis Comes Home: ‘The Underwear Factor”
By Linda Gromko, MD, and Interior Designer Jane McClure.
Paperback Book. ISBN 978-0-615-32528-6.

When Steve Williams’ kidneys stopped working in September 2007, he and his wife Dr. Linda Gromko were presented with two choices: a kidney transplant or kidney dialysis. There was, of course, the option of no treatment—but that would mean certain death for this husband and father of a teenaged daughter. Steve and Linda eagerly embraced the technology of Home Dialysis—treatments that could be done on their own time and on their own terms. But nothing could have prepared them for the onslaught of medical supplies that descended upon their home, making it seem more like a medical clinic or an ICU! Home Dialysis—while life-saving—was taking over, consuming their lives and redefining their family as one tethered to illness. That’s where Interior Designer Jane McClure saved the day.

“Arranging Your Life When Dialysis Comes Home: ‘The Underwear Factor’” shows you how to:

• Create your Home Center for Hemodialysis or Peritoneal Dialysis
• Design a Home Dialysis space that is comfortable, safe, and easy to use
• Manage the storage or necessary medical supplies
• Use the tricks of the trade that expensive Interior Decorators use
• Save money through sure-fire choices and bargain decorator shopping
• Support the caregiver and prevent caregiver burnout

Reclaim as much as your “normal” life as you can.

“Arranging Your Life When Dialysis Comes Home: ‘The Underwear Factor’” is the first in a series of books from the Seattle non-profit Arrange2Live, dedicated to making life more livable for people dealing with Home Dialysis and other health conditions requiring health care in the home.

Order through www.Arrange2Live.org.

Champion Chair Dialysis Recliner

Champion Manufacturing is a leading supplier of patient seating to all of the nation’s largest dialysis providers. The features that have made our recliner a best-seller in dialysis centers are the same features that make it well-suited for the home dialysis patient: comfort, quality, durability, and ease of operation for patients and their caregivers. Infection control is critical to the home dialysis patient, and Champion’s dialysis recliner with antimicrobial vinyl upholstery and quick-release seats make cleaning and disinfecting surfaces easy. Champion ships via white-glove carrier to patient homes in most areas. Recliners are fully assembled and ready to use when they arrive.

Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Seasoning Blends

Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Seasoning Blends® has been in business since 1983 and has grown to fill a 125,000-square-foot plant, blending and shipping Chef Paul’s dry spices, rubs, bottled sauces, and marinades.

For those who are looking for dialysis-safe, all-natural, no-salt, no-sugar seasoning blends, look no further! They are also no-MSG and gluten-free. Available flavors include Lemon & Cracked Pepper, Sweet & Spicy, Seven Herb, Toasted Onion & Garlic, and Six Spice.

Complications: A Doctor’s Love Story

“Complications: A Doctor’s Love Story”
By Linda Gromko, MD.
Paperback Book. ISBN 978-0-9825143-0-6.

When Seattle family doctor Linda Gromko receives an implausible inheritence from a former patient, the windfall jolts her life—already out of balance from the demands of her profession. She reshuffles her life priorities and vows to find a life partner once and for all. Browsing on the Internet with “I’d like to meet a nice Democrat,” she finds Steve—a businessman who is “irreverently funny, gifted at banter, and loyal as a beagle.” But while Steve brings joy, he also brings complications to the doctor’s life. For one, there is Steve’s nine-year-old daughter Brita, who stares the doctor down with “I hate every centimeter of you—get used to it!” The more serious complication, however, is Steve’s health. Known to have diabetes and high blood pressure for years, Steve falls precipitously into the abyss of Acute Kidney Failure. Without a transplant or dialysis, Steve will certainly die within one to two weeks. “Complications” takes the reader on a tumultuous ride of medical and personal trials, as Dr. Gromko exerts the most powerful advocacy of her life. The book is “R” rated: “R” for language, and “R” for reality!

Order through www.LindaGromkoMD.com.