Breaking into a new market, in a different state, is never an easy task. And although I've lived outside Chicago for nearly four years now, I will always be a Michiganian by birth and a Detroiter by heart.
As of this writing, however, I truly feel like I've been accepted in my home surroundings. In honor of National Kidney Month in March, I was invited to share my personal kidney khronicle in the March 13 edition of the Bean Soup Times, a beacon of information for Chicago's African American community for more than a decade!
My sincere thanks to Mr. Toure Muhammad, Bean Soup Times creator and publisher (not to mention comedian, broadcaster, communicator and PR professional), for his interest and allowing me to share his media platform. (Being described as an "Award-Winning Writer" in the headline doesn't hurt the old ego too much, either!)
As I mention in the article you're about to read, African Americans are experiencing end-stage renal disease (ESRD), or kidney failure in all its evil forms, at a rate three times higher than the rest of the U.S. population. So knowledge and awareness are especially crucial for black folks. If my story helps anyone reading it to take precautions – even just to monitor their blood pressure and keep it under control – I'm honored.
Here's the link to the Bean Soup post: http://bit.ly/WEexln. The words in red are links to previous Just Kidneying blog entries to give their readers (and you) some deeper background into the journey.
Happy reading. Remember to caress your kidneys.
Showing posts with label World Kidney Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Kidney Day. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Mr. Smith – uh, McFarlin – Goes to Washing – er, Springfield...Maybe
Now that World Kidney Month is officially in high gear, I'm thinking it could be the most appropriate time to share my big news: I have been appointed (hear the drum roll in your head) patient advocate board member of the ESRD (End-Stage Renal Disease) Advisory Committee for the State of Illinois!
The whole freakin' state! Chicago included!
I would like to thank the academy, the committee, my parents – I know you're looking down on me, Mom and Dad – my incredible wife, Karen; my family, and all the other little people like me who are affected by some form of kidney disease yet strive to maintain healthy, productive, positive lives!
I serve for you! I will be proud to represent your interests at the state capitol! On to Springfield, and victory!
OK, that's quite enough of that. The truth is, I have no idea what all this means.
Back in November I received an email from a pleasant woman at the Illinois Department of Public Health. Apparently all of this – the Just Kidneying blog, the appearances on behalf of the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois, the work with my NKFI chapter in Champaign-Urbana – placed me on the radar of some kidney koordinators at the state capitol. (The fact that my name was misspelled in the email suggested I hadn't become the talk of Springfield just yet.)
She wrote to gauge my interest in serving a three-year term on the ESRD board and sent along an application form to fill out, just to make sure I'm not a convicted criminal, a Republican or some other undesirable in Illinois. After I was vetted and approved a few weeks later, I received another email from another pleasant female bureaucrat with a note of congratulations and a downloadable, 40-page booklet entitled, "2013 ETHICS TRAINING for Appointees to State of Illinois Boards." It is required reading for everyone appointed to a state board, the email instructed, and I was to sign and return the last page verifying I had done so.
As I studied the document detailing what would be considered prohibited activities or conflicts of interest, and knowing my adopted state's "colorful" political history, I couldn't stop thinking, "Wonder if Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan ever signed off on one of these? Or read one, for that matter?"
But I'm now signed, sealed and delivered to the ESRD Advisory Committee, and rarin' to go. One of the major issues I want to address with the board, one we talk about often at my Champaign NKFI chapter, is access to care.
Where I live now, out on the high prairie, a lot of people with kidney failure live in rural areas and dialysis centers are in larger cities. Many live outside the range of bus service, and the sheer cost of gas for friends or relatives to drive them to dialysis and back (which is essential, because hemodialysis often leaves patients too weak to drive home on their own) can be prohibitive. There has to be a way to ensure everybody who needs dialysis can receive it despite $4 a gallon at the pump.
Only thing is, I'm rarin' to go but have no set destination. The committee has yet to call its first meeting of 2013, and there's no indication one is being scheduled for the immediate future.
So at the moment, I have a very impressive and important-sounding title with not the faintest clue of what I can accomplish with it. Does that make me like an ambassador?
Or better yet these days, like a member of Congress?
The whole freakin' state! Chicago included!
I would like to thank the academy, the committee, my parents – I know you're looking down on me, Mom and Dad – my incredible wife, Karen; my family, and all the other little people like me who are affected by some form of kidney disease yet strive to maintain healthy, productive, positive lives!I serve for you! I will be proud to represent your interests at the state capitol! On to Springfield, and victory!
OK, that's quite enough of that. The truth is, I have no idea what all this means.
Back in November I received an email from a pleasant woman at the Illinois Department of Public Health. Apparently all of this – the Just Kidneying blog, the appearances on behalf of the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois, the work with my NKFI chapter in Champaign-Urbana – placed me on the radar of some kidney koordinators at the state capitol. (The fact that my name was misspelled in the email suggested I hadn't become the talk of Springfield just yet.)
She wrote to gauge my interest in serving a three-year term on the ESRD board and sent along an application form to fill out, just to make sure I'm not a convicted criminal, a Republican or some other undesirable in Illinois. After I was vetted and approved a few weeks later, I received another email from another pleasant female bureaucrat with a note of congratulations and a downloadable, 40-page booklet entitled, "2013 ETHICS TRAINING for Appointees to State of Illinois Boards." It is required reading for everyone appointed to a state board, the email instructed, and I was to sign and return the last page verifying I had done so.
As I studied the document detailing what would be considered prohibited activities or conflicts of interest, and knowing my adopted state's "colorful" political history, I couldn't stop thinking, "Wonder if Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan ever signed off on one of these? Or read one, for that matter?"
But I'm now signed, sealed and delivered to the ESRD Advisory Committee, and rarin' to go. One of the major issues I want to address with the board, one we talk about often at my Champaign NKFI chapter, is access to care.
Where I live now, out on the high prairie, a lot of people with kidney failure live in rural areas and dialysis centers are in larger cities. Many live outside the range of bus service, and the sheer cost of gas for friends or relatives to drive them to dialysis and back (which is essential, because hemodialysis often leaves patients too weak to drive home on their own) can be prohibitive. There has to be a way to ensure everybody who needs dialysis can receive it despite $4 a gallon at the pump.
Only thing is, I'm rarin' to go but have no set destination. The committee has yet to call its first meeting of 2013, and there's no indication one is being scheduled for the immediate future.
So at the moment, I have a very impressive and important-sounding title with not the faintest clue of what I can accomplish with it. Does that make me like an ambassador?
Or better yet these days, like a member of Congress?
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Kidneys On Patrol
March, as every man, woman and child in America knows, is National Kidney Month.
The renal version of Mardi Gras, the Super Bowl and Independence Day, all rolled into a giant kidney-shaped ball.
Whoopee!
For some reason, I'm even more excited about this year's festival of function – highlighted by World Kidney Day Thursday, March 14 – than usual. So I'm getting an early jump on things. Maybe it's because I feel I've become more immersed in the kidney community in Illinois, the state where I live, than ever.
And one of the coolest things about NKFI, the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois, is its funding and perpetuation of the KidneyMobile, a fully equipped van that circles the state providing information about kidney disease and free screenings of blood sugar, blood pressure and urinalysis. People who get tested also have the opportunity to meet with a healthcare professional to review their results and discuss next steps.
And believe you me, when it comes to your kidneys, knowledge truly is power!
Here's a closer look at the KidneyMobile, thanks to this new NKFI video:
If you're in the Chicago area, I'll be joining in the World Kidney Day celebration on Thursday, March 14 at the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center, 1250 West 119th Street. The event begins with a press conference at 10 a.m. at which Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White and several other Windy City bigwigs will speak, followed at 10:30 by five hours of free screenings for anybody willing to sit down and get tested.
It's a big day for kidneys all over the earth!
For more information on World Kidney Day, check out this web page from the National Kidney Foundation. For more information on the Chicago festivities, call NKFI at (312) 321-1500.
Happy Peeing, Everyone!
The renal version of Mardi Gras, the Super Bowl and Independence Day, all rolled into a giant kidney-shaped ball.
Whoopee!
For some reason, I'm even more excited about this year's festival of function – highlighted by World Kidney Day Thursday, March 14 – than usual. So I'm getting an early jump on things. Maybe it's because I feel I've become more immersed in the kidney community in Illinois, the state where I live, than ever.
And one of the coolest things about NKFI, the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois, is its funding and perpetuation of the KidneyMobile, a fully equipped van that circles the state providing information about kidney disease and free screenings of blood sugar, blood pressure and urinalysis. People who get tested also have the opportunity to meet with a healthcare professional to review their results and discuss next steps.
And believe you me, when it comes to your kidneys, knowledge truly is power!
Here's a closer look at the KidneyMobile, thanks to this new NKFI video:
If you're in the Chicago area, I'll be joining in the World Kidney Day celebration on Thursday, March 14 at the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center, 1250 West 119th Street. The event begins with a press conference at 10 a.m. at which Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White and several other Windy City bigwigs will speak, followed at 10:30 by five hours of free screenings for anybody willing to sit down and get tested.
It's a big day for kidneys all over the earth!
For more information on World Kidney Day, check out this web page from the National Kidney Foundation. For more information on the Chicago festivities, call NKFI at (312) 321-1500.
Happy Peeing, Everyone!
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