GRENADA NATIONAL PATIENT KIDNEY FOUNDATION
MEET THE PATIENTS
MICHAEL MILLER
Michael Miller
"Diet is key," says Michael.. If you met him and did not know, you would never guess he is a patient on dialysis. In fact, the local bus drivers sometimes want to encourage him to run for the bus,( They are always in a hurry.!) He has had to show the bandage where the tube goes in to change the blood, so they will believe he is not just faking.
The diet for kidney dialysis patients is very restricted. If you thought the diet for diabetes was hard, this is much harder. But by sticking to it, he is able to achieve a quality of life. This past summer he has been able to help with a summer camp for children in his field of teaching crafts, and still give lots of help with the GNPKF.
One time he did not get dialysed for a number of weeks. He had previously been on dialysis in Trinidad, and felt he wanted to be at home in Grenada. This landed him in the hospital, where he was very ill indeed. He only survived on half a cup of water a day, and a little pawpaw. Thanks be to God he recovered and started on dialysis.
In spite of his condition, he is now able to be the President of GNPKF. He has also investigated the fact that many of our diet sheets for diabetes and kidney disease come from the U.S. and Europe, and has found out which of our local foods can be used, although all foods have to be used in small quantities, and only a half litre of water can be used per day. He insists this should be the best spring water!
CHERRIL PASCALL
Cherril Pascal
Cherril is always very cheerful, despite having quite a bit of pain sometimes She. is married and has three children, Gena, Rogerson and Dwight (two grown up and one thirteen year old).She used to work in a hotel. She loves her 'soaps' (T.V)! But also does a lot of work raising funds for herself and the other patients. She has had diabetes for a number of years, but has not succeeded in keeping the sugar levels down. It is amazing how quickly this has caused her kidneys to fail. For a large part of 2006 she was very ill. She had been to Trinidad and they had put her on peritoneal dialysis. With this form of dialysis a tube is put in the belly, and the patient has to put in a medication several times a day. The patient is then free the rest f the time. It can work well some of the time. But it also can cause infections, and this is what had made her so ill. At one time it did not seem as if she would be there for her son's graduation from GBSS. Thanks be to God she did see him graduate. Then she had to go down to Trinidad for months on end and could not be in Grenada with her family. Also Trinidad is a dangerous place, so it is not so free for walking about as in Grenada. She was so happy when the clinic opened here, and she can be at home with her family. She also is able to work hard for the GNPKF.
WAYNE WARREN
Wayne is a young man in his twenties, a truck owner/driver He had hypertension, (high blood pressure) for a number of years, but he did not really bother about it, did not follow treatments or watch his diet. He also liked to drink alcohol quite a lot. One day his blood pressure went up to 280. He found himself in the hospital and soon had to go to Trinidad for treatment. Then he found out his kidneys had failed... After a while he was able to come home to Grenada and be with his family and go on dialysis in Belmont, which is much better.
I had asked him if he misses the foods he cannot use now, but he says he has got used to it and does not think about them.
One thing Wayne has though is a hope of getting a kidney transplant! A cousin of his in Trinidad has promised to give him one, and is a match. However, as she is soon to have a baby he will have to wait a while, maybe until next year Meantime life is better on dialysis, and he can work some of the days.
JANELLE LEWIS
Janelle Lewis
Janelle is a young woman is her twenties. She is married and has a little gitl,Willanna. Janelle has diabetes. She is not quite as energetic as the others. (But this does not surprise me, it is the others energy that amazes me.) She does hold barbecues every week to raise funds for her dialysis.
She is the one who first told me that on the dialysis diet you cannot even eat pumpkin or callaloo!! That was a shocker, first two of my favorite things, and then we normally think of them as being very healthy, as they have lots of anti-oxidants, vitamins, and iron etc. But they are too high in potassium for the patients. They have not only to watch their sugar and starches and carbohydrates, and not too much protein, but also have to be careful of potassium (found in bananas and potatoes too).
Janelle had diabetes as a child, but was not very keen to stick to the diet. There were so many nice things to eat at school. Too much temptation! She got a very bad ear infection, very painful and antibiotics did not help Then she started to get sick and was dizzy all the time, and was vomiting and then it turned out her kidneys had failed.
Janelle is glad to be on dialysis now, and home in Grenada. She can now do her cleaning, washing and even baking which she could not do when she was ill.
I asked Janelle if there is anything she could do before that she misses doing now. She told me, "Going and lime".!
(For overseas people "lime" means go out and relax with friends (rough translation!)
"Callaloo" is a kind of spinach, very smooth and tasty, which makes a very nice soup.)
ZEDINA
Then there is the little girl, Zedina. She is a brave little girl and is looked after by an American Foundation. This is just to show that even children can be on dialysis.
CHERRIL AND JANELLE
let me into a little "dialysis patient" secret. When they know that they are soon going onto the dialysis machine, which will clean out their blood, they can 'cheat' a little, and eat some forbidden food! Then they will indulge in some Kentucky Fried Chicken, ice cream or a bar of chocolate! Well, who can blame them, when they are on such a restricted diet!