Oh, Tie a Bright Green Ribbon/'Round Your Old Kid-neeeey

If you're reading this blog, I'll betcha a dollar to a doughnut (better yet, a celery stalk – doughnuts are dangerous to diabetics and many kidney patients) you already know that March is National Kidney Month.

The official NxStage Green Ribbon

What you probably don't know – because this is the first time it's ever occurred – is that today, March 20, is also National Home Hemodialysis Day. Whoopee!

There are no parades planned for my community (I checked), but it's a day of celebration for many of the 430,000 Americans who are on dialysis nevertheless.

One could easily dismiss this as a slick marketing ploy by NxStage, the Massachusetts-based company that, from what I understand, makes a pretty mean home hemo machine, the NxStage System One.

(I did not opt for hemodialysis, where your blood essentially is sucked out of your body, cleaned and scrubbed, then put back in, when my time came to choose a dialysis option. Even though I've been a post-transplant diabetic for more than two years, I am just now getting on speaking terms with the idea of sticking myself with needles every day.)

However, a lot of dialysis patients I've heard talk about home hemo rave about the treatment. It allows them much greater flexibility and self-determination in how they manage their renal condition, as well as such therapeutic benefits as improved energy, better appetite and less stress on the heart. You can see a number of testimonials yourself on the NxStage website, in a series of video clips that look suspiciously like they were recorded at the Home Dialyzors United conference I attended last year in Orlando.

(No home hemo for me. No camera time. Rats.)

To commemorate the day, NxStage has made available green ribbons to be worn today by those who support the home dialysis option. Obviously it's too late to get an "official" ribbon from the company now, but I'm sure any green ribbon folded and worn with pride will get the point across. I'll certainly be sporting mine today.

After all, anything that can keep kidney patients from traveling back and forth to a dialysis clinic two to four times a week for hours at a time and allow them to remain in the comfort of their homes instead can only be called one thing:

A blessing.