Tag: @KidneyBCY

Scattershooting on a Sunday night while wondering who now has home-ice advantage in NHL bubble playoffs . . .

Scattershooting

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John Deer dropped by the Drinnan residence for a feed off our Jon Gold apple tree the other evening. You’re right. He didn’t look all that impressed. And, no, he hasn’t been back. Perhaps he was too busy watching NHL games.

COVID-19 CHRONICLES . . .

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The Mid-American Conference cancelled fall sports, including football, on Saturday. It is the first Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conference to drop football, at least for now. The MAC is hoping to be able to play football in the spring. . . . The decision was announced after school presidents held a virtual meeting on Saturday morning. . . . The move by the MAC comes days after UConn was the first FBS school to cancel its football season. . . . Sean Frazier, Northern Illinois’ athletic director, summed up the decision: ““It’s real. No one wants to have football or sports more than me. Football gave me all the opportunities I have today. But I can’t do it at the expense of people’s lives. I can’t do that and I won’t do that. Not on my watch.” . . . Chris Vannini of The Athletic wrote that Frazier “said his family has lost loved ones to the pandemic.” . . .

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The football team and the band at Oneonta, Ala., High School are in quarantine after a number of positive tests, including five football players. This is the second time the football team has been shut down by positive tests. . . . “I looked my wife in the eyes Monday night before I went to bed and I said, ‘You know I sure hope we didn’t kill anybody’s grandmother today by having a football practice,” head coach Phil Phillips told WBMA-TV. “You’re torn because the kids want to play so bad.” . . .

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The MLS is Back tournament is to end Tuesday in Orlando, Fla., and the league is preparing to resume its regular season on Wednesday. Each of the 26 teams is to play 18 games, with games being played without fans. . . . The three Canadian teams — Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver — aren’t included for now because the U.S.-Canada border remains closed to non-essential traffic. . . .

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After having a weekend series with the Chicago Cubs postponed, the St. Louis Cardinals now have played only five games. This means that they have 55 games remaining and only 49 days in which to play them. . . . Whoops! The Cardinals now have had a three-game series with the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates postponed; it was to have started Monday. . . . That now leaves St. Louis with 46 days in which to play those 55 games. . . . As Jesse Spector of Deadspin explained: “If all of the Cardinals-Cubs games wind up being part of doubleheaders, and it’s hard to see how they won’t be, that would mean 16 of St. Louis’ 60 games this season are seven-inning affairs. That’s 27 percent of the schedule consisting of these shortened games . . . and that’s assuming it doesn’t rain in the Midwest for the rest of the summer.” . . . Spector wrote that before the series with the Pirates was flushed. . . . The Cardinals, who have had 10 players and seven staff members test positive, have had 15 games postponed since last playing on July 29. . . . St. Louis is scheduled to return to play on Thursday with a doubleheader against the Tigers in Detroit.

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James Click, Houston Astros GM: “I really do think that whichever team has the fewest cases of coronavirus is going to win.”

Somewhere old friend Pat Ginnell is looking down while smiling and nodding . . .

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“New York Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes vanished from the team hotel in Atlanta before finally announcing hours later that he was opting out of the 2020 season,” Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times reports. “In other words, the old hidden-ballplayer trick.”

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Perry, again: “A Twins-Pirates game was delayed for nine minutes when an unauthorized drone flew over center field. Possible charges range from violating the outfield fly rule to the most-feared one — lack of express written consent.”

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Perry vows that he saw this on Facebook: “Hippos can run faster than humans on land, and swim faster than humans in water. Which means the bicycle is your only chance of beating a hippo in a triathlon.”

Hotel

The QMJHL’s Gatineau Olympiques don’t know when their next season will start but they do know that as of right know they don’t have a home arena. Health officials have told team officials that the Robert-Guerin Arena is going to be used as a COVID-19/homeless shelter for the next 12 months. Originally, the Olympiques were to be back in the rink next week to begin preparing for a new season. . . . A new arena is part of a complex that is being built; however, construction has slowed with costs having soared from a project cost of $78.5 million to more than $100 million. . . . The OHL has said it hopes to open on Dec. 1, while the WHL is aiming for Dec. 4. The QMJHL hasn’t moved its opening date since announcing that it will being its regular season on Oct. 1. . . . Norman Provencher of the Ottawa Citizen has more right here.

Here’s Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe, points out: “Alabama senate candidate and former college football coach Tommy Tuberville said $600 a week is “way too much. We’re having people just sit out not working because they’re (paid) more sitting around.” . . . After a 5-7 record coaching at Auburn in 2008, school told him to resign and paid Tuberville $5 MILLION not to work in 2009.”

JUST NOTES: Oh boy, is this NHL race for the Covid Cup proving to be confusing. Fans of the Vancouver Canucks are acting as though their favourite team won a playoff series, when they actually won a play-in series that the NHL apparently isn’t counting as playoffs. Or is it? . . . The Toronto Maple Leafs, meanwhile, lost a play-in series and their detractors — and there are a few of those, aren’t there? — point out that the Leafs didn’t make the playoffs. . . . So which is it? . . . Aaron Boone’s lack of feel for his pitching staff is going to cost him his job as the manager of the New York Yankees. He really has a knack of leaving a pitcher, starter or reliever, in for one batter too long. . . . Yankees management also is going to have to do something with C Gary Sanchez, who would strike out in t-ball. . . . A tip of the cap to Mike Morreale, the commissioner of the Canadian Elite Basketball League, and his crew for the masterful job they did of pulling off their championship tournament with all teams in St. Catharines, Ont. They called it the Summer Series and the Edmonton Stingers won the final, 90-73, over the Fraser Valley Bandits on Sunday.

Magic

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If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

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Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604.875.5182 or 1.855.875.5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

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Or, for more information, visit right here.

Here’s Jack Finarelli, aka The Sports Curmudgeon, with his Thought for the Day, this one from Mark Twain: “A man who picks up a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.”

Moses

Ferris done with hemo? Family is hopeful . . . You need a kidney, but how do you ask for one? We’ve got tips . . . Celebrating kidneyversary by wingwalking

Could it be that Ferris Backmeyer is through with hemodialysis?

Ferris, 3, is in Vancouver with her mother, Lindsey, and father, Pat, while the medical staff at B.C. Children’s Hospital tries to get her kidney situation straightened out a bit.

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Ferris is a picture of complete concentration as she works the Play-Doh while in hospital. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

Ferris, who is from Kamloops, had been doing peritoneal dialysis (PD) at home until an infection brought that to an end. In Vancouver, she was transitioned to hemo, but had some issues.

Lindsey wrote on Facebook on Saturday that she is “cautiously optimistic that (Friday) was her last hemo.”

Lindsey continued: “The best news is that she’s active again on the deceased transplant list!”

Ferris had been placed on the list earlier this year and the family had been given the OK to look for a living donor. But all of that ended when Ferris was laid low by the infection.

Now the Backmeyers are starting to think about coming home.

Lindsey said they are “trying not to get too exited, but if labs are good and her weight isn’t up too much Monday they will book to have the central line removed Wednesday or Thursday. Once it’s out . . . we can come home, home!!”

Ferris has been on dialysis, usually PD, since she was 14 months old. She now is 3.5. So all if this isn’t new to Lindsey, who has been’t shy about explaining all that has happened during the family’s journey.

On Saturday, she wrote that “this whole experience has been eye-opening to say the least.”

She added that they have always known “how vulnerable and fragile Ferris is” and that she feels “we already had a good handle on that.”

But, Lindsey wrote, this last while has given them a look at “what life after transplant might look like . . . a little window of what’s to come.”

Someone doing PD hooks up to a cycler every single night; there aren’t any nights off. During this stint in Vancouver, with Ferris doing hemp for a bit, there were days without treatments.

“It was surely nice not having to connect her to anything at home,” Lindsey wrote. “She slept so much better not being on PD at night and it was very nice for her to be able to just go to bed whenever and wake up whenever without having to stay in bed to finish treatment.”

With Ferris back on a waiting list for a transplant, Lindsey admitted that there are scary moments when thinking about that happening, but . . .

“As terrifying as transplant feels,” she explained, “living on dialysis is equally as scary. While having its perks . . . hemp is not ideal for a kid Ferris’s age. And not so much the act of having to go into the clinic four days a week for 3.5-4 hours. That part is fairly easy. It’s the managing of a dangly central line, a line that was technically difficult to place and literally her life line.”

There also have been other issues with which to deal.

“Her skin is so angry from the dressing (we’ve tried a couple different kinds),” Lindsey wrote. “She has crap for energy and they can’t seem to catch up on red blood cell production despite majorly increasing both dose and frequency of her aranesp injection.”

Patients with chronic kidney disease who are on dialysis are treated with aranesp in the hopes of increasing the red blood cells.

“And the biggest one . . . not being able to come home,” Lindsey wrote. “PD is a lot safer and will allow us to come home and for that I’m so grateful!

“Thanks so much to everyone who has literally carried us through. I miss home. I miss our friends. I really miss my big kids. Heck I even miss being able to go to work.

“Home soon, we hope!”

They actually tried PD earlier in the week, going with what Lindsey said were “really small fill volumes for 13 hours.”

She added: “It went pretty good. Even removed some fluid which no one really expected. She’s had some drain pain which definitely sucks.”

At that stage, Ferris’s blood pressure was “all over the map,” although “she looked completely fine and was happily smashing Play-Doh.”

There also have been hemoglobin issues which Lindsey feels has been “majorly contributing to her lack of physical energy.”

But there have been improvements.

“She’s playing on her feet more and she wants to swing big and high on the swings again,” Lindsey wrote. “She’s in a much better mood. However, she’s still really weak when it comes to walking — she isn’t really walking much at all.”

Hopefully, more PD and end of hemo will get Ferris feeling more energetic.

In the meantime . . .

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

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Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604.875.5182 or 1.855.875.5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

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Or, for more information, visit right here.

So . . . you have kidney disease and a transplant is in your future. You know that having a living kidney donor is the best you can hope for, but you are reluctant to ask someone else for one of their organs. . . . I can relate. Dorothy went through that exact scenario. After four years of doing peritoneal dialysis (PD), she got a kidney through the Living Kidney Donor Program, with her best friend giving up a kidney in order for Dorothy to receive one. . . . If you find yourself in that position, Risa Simon has written a piece that may help you at least get started. It’s right here and well worth a read.

So . . . you have had a kidney transplant. How do you celebrate the anniversary of that exciting moment in your life. Perhaps you go to your favourite restaurant. Maybe you open a bottle of your favourite wine. . . . If you’re Nicky Clifford, who had a kidney transplant more than 26 years ago, you go walking on a wing. Yes, you do. . . . Check out her story right here.

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Zach facing one more speed bump . . . Mom: What we really need is a matching kidney

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So . . . you’ve got kidney disease . . . you go on dialysis . . . you get a new kidney.

Easy peasy! Right?

Oh, if only it was that easy. If only the process wasn’t so damn heart-breaking in some instances.

Zach Tremblay, a 17-year-old from Robson, B.C., needs a kidney. He has been on dialysis, peritoneal or hemo, since 2014. He had a live donor transplant in 2017 but there were complications and it didn’t work out.

He was doing peritoneal dialysis (PD) at home, but it began to lose its effectiveness as 2019 wound down, and he and his mother, Jana, ended up at B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver where he was transitioned to hemodialysis.

That transition included the removal of a catheter that was used for PD and the insertion of a fistula to make hemo a bit easier by allowing an increase in blood flow.

So much for that.

On Thursday, Jana posted on Facebook:

“I guess to be blunt is best. The fistula surgery failed. We found out on Monday that the fistula has clotted off and did not grow. Fistula surgeries have a 25% failure rate, and he fell into that 25%. We are heartbroken and sad and angry and all the things. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t change that the surgery was a failure. It is unusable as an access for dialysis.

“We aren’t sure when, but another fistula surgery will be scheduled. Please keep sharing his story when you see it.

“A fistula is great, but what we really need is a matching kidney.”

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If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

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Shortly after Jana’s post hit Facebook, Joan Alexander replied with an emotional plea of her own:

“This is hard to read and even harder to live! Zach’s mom . . . has shared the most recent update on his journey with kidney disease. Zach is the reason I became a living kidney donor.

“I wonder sometimes if people get tired of reading my posts about organ donation. Well, I will not stop until Zach receives his gift! Please take a moment and read more about his journey on Jana’s page or on the public page: Zach Needs a Kidney . . . Like Yesterday!

“Getting tested to become a donor is so easy.”

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Meanwhile, there was more news from Vancouver where Ferris Backmeyer continues her battle.

Her mother, Lindsey, reported via Facebook that Ferris celebrated something of a birthday . . .

“Well happy half birthday little miss! 3.5 years old . . . oh my!” Lindsey wrote. “Celebrated with a night-time discharge from the hospital and (Thursday) is a day completely free of appointments and dialysis!! She had HD (Wednesday) followed by 3 flushes of her PD cath and a sample was taken late (Wednesday) afternoon. The results came back at 8pm and cell counts continue to improve. Original samples haven’t grown anything so we’ve stopped the IV and oral antifungals. Which meant we could pull the IV and sleep in ‘our own’ beds!!

“Ferris is so happy to have her ‘colouring hand’ back! I’m hoping she will start to feel better as it’s become quite obvious with the IV med anyways that it really makes her feel like crap. Blood pressure has been pretty high lately and I’m fairly certain she’s lost some real weight and is ‘wet’ at 11.3kg. Feeling such a strong need to get back on PD so we can get more calories into her. The fluid restriction on HD makes it so ridiculously tough to grow her. She’s also pretty anemic so hoping once that improves we will see better energy. She seems to be recovering well from surgery and hasn’t had any Tylenol for over 24hrs.

“Plan is to be admitted Tuesday to start using the PD cath. It’ll be a hybrid of HD and PD for a little bit until we can hopefully switch over fully, pull the HD line and come home. Middle of August maybe? That’s the most current plan anyway.”

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If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

Mike

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Ferris and Lindsey Backmeyer: A mother’s love is everything when her child continues to fight . . .

If you’re a regular here, you will know that we have been paying particular attention to Ferris Backmeyer and her family, who are from Kamloops.

That’s because her mother, Lindsey, has been keeping friends and family (and us) updated on Ferris via Facebook.

Lindsey has poured out a mother’s heart in her posts, refusing to hold anything back. She has written with angst and anger and pain and, yes, even some humour as Ferris, at just three years of age, continues to travel a road that hopefully will end with a kidney transplant.

The outpouring of emotions is understandable as Lindsey helps guide husband Pat and Ferris’s two sisters — Tavia and Ksenia — through all of this.

The older girls — the “bigs” as Lindsey refers to them — were in Vancouver for three weeks before returning home with Lindsey’s mother after the weekend.

Lindsey and Pat now are completely focused on getting Ferris through this rough patch, helping her get well enough to go back on the transplant list, and back home. But the last bit hasn’t been an easy stretch.

For example, here’s a bit from a Facebook post by Lindsey on July 20 after doctors implanted a central dialysis line:

“Ferris had complications intraoperatively. The line was technically difficult because of her anatomy and while they were placing it they irritated her heart. Her higher potassium levels lower her threshold for things like that and she went into a PEA arrest. She had roughly 3 minutes of CPR and 1 dose of epinephrine when they got her pulse back. She was hypoxemic and difficult to ventilate for a bit afterwards. They were confident that it was noticed very quickly and that she responded fairly quickly. Thankfully they were able to extubate her and pull her art line before going to the dialysis unit.”

One day later, Lindsey wrote:

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Despite all that she has been through, Ferris Backmeyer, 3, can still find a smile for the camera. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

“As for today . . . she’s super low key but perked up by evening and wanted to go to the beach and build sand castles . . . so that’s what we did:) she spent about 5 minutes total on her feet today but that’s okay!! Lots of couch time. She’s sore and much happier with Tylenol on board. I’d be lying if I am not super anxious/protective over her right now. She has little pen crosses on her pulses and blood in her hair that I rinsed off into a paper towel. A bath was not a today thing. She has no idea what a big day yesterday was, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.”

Last Thursday, Ferris had more surgery as a peritoneal dialysis (PD) catheter was implanted. She had been doing PD at home when fungal peritonitis brought it all crashing down. That resulted in this most-recent trek to B.C. Children’s Hospital and all that has followed.

After Thursday was over, Lindsey, her emotions on her sleeve by now, wrote: “It was a super hard, inpatient kinda day.”

A day later, there were more complications, this time with cell counts.

“The question of when she could get listed again (for a transplant) comes up and at this point we just don’t know,” Lindsey wrote. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t shattered by today’s news.

“My heart is breaking for Ferris. She normally takes all the medical stuff in stride and right now she’s really struggling. I call it a trauma cry because it’s one I have hardly ever seen before and she looks like she’s being tortured. With things she used to handle like a champ. As she gets older navigating her mental health is so much more challenging and so ridiculously important!”

The next day, doctors had to put in an IV line, which brought this response from Lindsey:

“Oh man . . . after posting how she’s not doing so well coping . . first time ever IV placement without tears! This is her 5th IV this go-round and she’s not left with a lot of sites. She was so ridiculously cute and compliant for the nurse and she was friggin amazing with Ferris! Decent end to a not so awesome day!!”

And now the Backmeyers are playing something of a waiting game. As Lindsey wrote on Monday:

Couch
Ferris likes the couch a whole lot more than a hospital bed. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

“So far the cultures haven’t grown anything! They have stopped the antibiotics. Gonna repeat a sample on Wednesday and if cell counts have trended down will likely drop the antifungals (she’s been on fluconazole since we got down here a month ago). Then it will be a bit of a wait-and-see. I think they will go ahead and start using the catheter as planned. Best case scenario . . . home in a couple of weeks!! Trying so desperately to remain optimistic!!

“Ferris wants nothing to do with a hospital bed after she gets out of it in the morning. All bad things start with that bed . . . I can’t really blame her! She’s passed out on the couch the last 3 nights. Hoping for a super uneventful week!!”

BTW, Lindsey and Pat celebrated their 16th anniversary last week.

“Happy Anniversary to the most incredible momma bear,” Pat wrote, above a photo of a snarling grizzly bear. On the photo, it read: “Fate whispers to the warrior, ‘You cannot withstand the storm.’ And the mama bear whispers back, ‘I am the storm.’ ”

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If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

Here’s the deal on the above tweet. . . . It’s the story of Carrie, who has had a heart transplant and now has met the family of her donor. . . . From the Provincial Health Services Authority: “Filmed in February 2020, Carrie finally got to hug the family of Darcy, her organ donor. After 17 years of writing letters to each other, she was met with open arms by his mother Marie and brother Daryl in a first ever face-to-face meeting.” . . . The video is right here.

Sunday a day of freedom for Ferris . . . Zach needs a kidney, too . . . Want to help? Please contact Living Kidney Donor Program

The Backmeyers have found some freedom in Vancouver with Ferris being treated as an outpatient, at least for now.

Ferris, 3, slept on a couch on Friday night, a rarity for a child who has been on dialysis since she was 14 months old. Today (Sunday), she won’t have to dialyze and I really would love to know what will be going through her mind as she spends one entire day without having to hook up to a cycler for peritoneal dialysis (PD) or a hemodialysis machine.

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Ferris spent some time doing kid things the other day in Vancouver. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

The Backmeyers are from Kamloops. Ferris is in need of a kidney transplant. She had been doing PD at home, but she got hit with an infection, so Mom and Dad (Lindsey and Pat) had to take her to B.C. Children’s Hospital a week ago. There, doctors removed her PD catheter and transitioned her to hemodialysis, at least for the short term.

Lindsey informed Facebook followers early Saturday that they will take Ferris to BCCH on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday for hemo, with each run taking about three hours. Including pre- and post-, it takes about 3.5 hours. That is quite a change for a little girl who is used to being hooked up to a cycler for about 12 hours a night.

“Still gives us a decent amount of time out,” Lindsey wrote.

She added that they spent some time out Friday evening “and I think it’s safe to say we are all more comfy here! Now if it would only stop raining!!!!”

They almost certainly will be in Vancouver for another few weeks.

“The most current plan is to admit her during the first week in August and reinsert her PD catheter,” Lindsey wrote. “If it goes well we could be home mid-August. While it’s not a set-in-stone plan . . . it’s the one we have for now!”

On Thursday, Lindsey had written that “Ferris is slowly feeling better each day. She hasn’t had any Tylenol since noon (Wednesday) and has only cried a couple times in pain. . . .

“She’s still really low on physical energy but she continues to eat! We are back to full feeds and she’s still eating a ton. She’s eaten half a chicken in three days. . . . She’s constantly yelling for different foods . . .”

This will be a big week for Ferris as her big sisters are scheduled to arrive on Wednesday.

According to Lindsey: “Ferris asks about them a lot. They worry about Ferris and us when we are down here. It’ll be better for everyone if we are together. We had already discussed the possibility of spending the summer here if a transplant were to happen. Kinda preparing them that all our summer camping plans might be derailed. So this isn’t totally unexpected.

“The realization that we are here for awhile has been a huge pill to swallow. In fact I haven’t really yet. I’m still looking at how big it is!! For now, we plan for next week and hope that Ferris gets a bit stronger each day!”

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Meanwhile, Zach Tremblay, now 17, continues to trek from his home in Robson, B.C., to Trail to do dialysis as he waits and hopes for a kidney transplant.

You bet that Zach can relate to what Ferris is going through, because he was transitioned from PD to hemo early this year.

Zach16

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If you are at all interested in being a living kidney donor, contact the Living Kidney Donor Program at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. You don’t have to make an immediate commitment, but the folks there are able to prove you with more information and answer any questions you may have.

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

There are a lot of tests involved in finding out whether a potential kidney donor and recipient are a match. Three of those are blood tests — blood typing, tissue typing and cross-matching. . . . There’s a lot more on that right here.

Ferris ‘definitely turned a corner’ and winning hearts of the nurses . . . Tips on asking for a kidney

It was a Happy Canada Day for the Backmeyer family of Kamloops as Lindsey reported via Facebook on Wednesday that Ferris, her three-year-old daughter, has “definitely turned a corner!”

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Ferris wants you to know that her appetite is returning. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

Ferris is in need of a kidney transplant and is on the list, but the process stalled after she developed fungal peritonitis last week. As a result, her parents, Lindsey and Pat, had to take her to B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. Patients with kidney disease who are doing peritoneal dialysis (PD) fear peritonitis. In this instance, Ferris had to have her catheter removed and has been transitioned to hemodialysis — she began with a three-hour run on Monday. She had been doing PD at home since she was 14 months old.

On Wednesday, Lindsey reported that Ferris’s “pain is less and we haven’t needed morphine since Monday afternoon but are still reliant on regular Tylenol. She slept 12 hours straight (Tuesday) night and I got a solid nine hours . . . it was so so good!”

Ferris’s oxygen levels also have gotten better so she no longer is wearing a monitor.

For now, as Ferris continues the transition to hemo, she is on a diet that restricts fluid and food intake.

“It’s soooo weird for her to be constantly asking for food and actually eating food,” Lindsey wrote. “If anything it confirms my belief that she will go back to being an oral eater once she gets a kidney transplant.”

Lindsey also said they could be looking at “a long time” in Vancouver. In fact, she said, “It could be until transplant.”

Eventually, doctors will try to get Ferris back on PD, but in order for that to happen another catheter will have to be put in place. When might that happen? Lindsey said she was told “three weeks . . . by nephrology; however, urology said three months.”

She added: “We’ve also been told that there is only a 50% success rate of peritoneal dialysis after having a fungal peritonitis. I’m trying not to get too stressed about what that means for our family.”

For now, Lindsey and Pat are staying in Kitsilano, but will move to Ronald McDonald House in about four weeks. Ferris’s older sisters, Ksenia and Tavia, who remained in Kamloops, are expected to visit in the near future.

In the meantime, Ferris spent Monday “eating all the food, colouring and playing Play-Doh!”

And it will bring a smile to your face to hear that “she’s winning the hearts of all the nurses, which of course doesn’t surprise me one little bit!”

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If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

It’s official! Nova Scotia will be turning to a system of presumed consent for organ and tissue donation as of Jan. 18. The legislature passed the law in April 2019, and when it takes effect Nova Scotia will be the first province in Canada to go that route. . . . What it means is that if a person is going to have to take steps to opt out if he/she doesn’t want to be an organ donor. . . . “I fully expect that we’re going to have the best donation rates in the country in a few years. That’s my objective,” Dr. Stephen Beed, the medical director of the province’s organ and tissue donation program, told Michael Gorman of CBC News. “I want to be able to provide the best opportunity we can for Nova Scotians by having the best program in the country, and that’s where I want us to be. Now we have the support to do it.” . . . Gorman’s story is right here.

Ferris’s journey continues with transition to hemodialysis forced by infection . . . Mom: “Ferris did pretty great . . .”

FerrisLindsey 2
Ferris and her mother, Lindsey, are back at B.C. Children’s Hospital, along with good friends Elmo and Grover. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

It was June 19 and things were looking clear for Ferris Backmeyer. Really clear.

Ferris, 3, was wearing her new glasses and it was obvious that she was seeing some

FerrisGlasses
Ferris showed off her new glasses just a few short days ago. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

things in great detail for the first time. Oh, the concentration as she looked at a book, turning pages and pointing out various things with either index finger.

But, oh my, life can take some quick turns.

Five days later, Ferris, who has been doing peritoneal dialysis since she was 14 months old, was battling fungal peritonitis.

As her mother, Lindsey, posted on Facebook: “The treatment 100% of the time is catheter removal. She is scheduled for a hemo line insertion Monday . . . Looks like we will be spending our summer at BCCH.”

Someone doing peritoneal dialysis has a catheter inserted in their midsection into the peritoneal cavity. The nightly fluid exchange, via a dialysis machine called a cycler, is conducted via the catheter.

Ferris was back at B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver on Saturday and, as Lindsey mentioned, she was to have had a hemodialysis line put in today (Monday).

But those plans changed on Sunday . . .

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Ferris was back on the ward, along with two of her friends, on Sunday night. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

“My sweet girl is in the OR right now,” Lindsey wrote on Sunday afternoon. “We had a really rough night. She is definitely getting worse in regards to pain and her breathing wasn’t awesome either. She was having central apneas and needed O2. She essentially slept through 2 lab draws this morning and endless assessments. They decided to pull the catheter and insert the hemo line today.”

And the little girl came through with flying colours. Yes, she is a real trouper in every sense of the word.

On Sunday night, Lindsey wrote that “Ferris did pretty great I think!”

There were a couple of hiccups, but the medical staff was able to get Ferris through all of that and she had her first “little test run on hemodialysis.”

That was “pretty uneventful . . . so uneventful that we got to come back up to the ward!”

Ferris woke up at 9 p.m., and was asking for food.

“Cheese and ranch dip are happening,” Lindsey wrote. “I’m trying to gently get food into her without making her vomit because her tummy still really hurts.”

And that pretty much took care of Sunday for the Backmeyers.

On Saturday, Lindsey wrote that she expects this stay at BCCH to last at least six weeks. They got settled in where, as Lindsey wrote, “It’s familiar so settling in was pretty easy.”

Ferris, if you’re new here, needs a kidney transplant, and the family was given the OK to look for a live donor a few months ago. A transplant won’t happen now, at least not while Ferris works to overcome this setback.

According to Lindsey, “Ferris handled things like a champ” on Saturday. “No tears aside from the IV . . . and it took a few attempts. She was over it before they were done drawing the blood. She’s not responding to any of the treatment we’ve provided at home really. Still spiking fevers, her drain fluid is awful and she just doesn’t feel good. They started her on IV antifungals . . .”

When you find a moment of quiet time in your schedule, have a thought for Ferris and her family. They really will appreciate it.

“I’m continually amazed and sometimes wonder why people seem to love us so much and just come together and help us,” Lindsey wrote. “We are soooo greatful for everybody!”

Had all of this not happened, the Backmeyers would have been starting a two-week camping trip. So much for that. But such is life when you live with someone who has kidney disease.

Late Sunday night, Lindsey wrote: “Huge thanks for all the support, prayers and good vibes . . . they are getting us through!”

——

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

If you were one of those who donated to Dorothy for the 2020 Kidney Walk, you will be interested in the tweet that follows. By donating, you became a member of Dorothy’s Team and you will find her name on the list. Check it out . . . and thank you for your support. . . . She has raised $3,190 for the 2020 Kidney Walk and her page remains open for donations right here.

Dave McKeague, 72, and his daughter Caileen, both of Saskatoon, have taken part in the Kidney Walk for the past four years. . . . Dave is in kidney failure and on dialysis. . . . Caileen found out more than a year ago that she is a match, and now all that’s needed is a date for transplant surgery at St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon. . . . They had hoped to have it done in April or May, but the pandemic got in the way. That means they still are waiting for a date. . . . Brady Ratzlaff of Global News has their story right here.

Keep on social distancing and washing your hands . . . let’s not surrender the ground we have gained!

Reminder

A dear friend of ours ventured into a large grocery store on Saturday. Considering the times in which we are living, he didn’t have a pleasant experience.

Afterwards, he wrote:

“Question: With 95 new cases of COVID-19 in B.C., who is policing the social distancing in the retail sector? I was in a major outlet today. They were letting everyone in. No social distancing except at checkout. What the heck? This pandemic, in Kamloops especially, is going to get out of hand. Makes me want to hurl canned goods to protect my six feet.”

That drew this response from someone else:

“Relax . . . and try not to pay too much attention to the CBC or Global news. The numbers in the Interior are relatively tiny and frankly the possibility of you running into someone who is infected are somewhere between zilch and zero. Social distancing does absolutely nothing if no one is infected. If you’re that worried about it just stay home and have your groceries delivered.

“There are currently 150 cases in the entire Interior of which 90 are recovered. So if you spread those 60 people out over the entire interior including Kamloops, Kelowna, Vernon, Penticton, etc. etc. And since they have tested positive it’s highly unlikely they’re out shopping.

“The grocery store I visited was doing the distance thing but because the checkout had small lineups that went back into the aisles because of the 6 ft rule it made keeping distant almost impossible if you wanted something in that aisle. They’re trying but really it’s becoming a bit much, worrying about how many feet away you are from the next person.”

These are the people who make we want to puke. They really do.

This person writes: “Social distancing does absolutely nothing if no one is infected.”

That’s exactly the point. We don’t know who is infected. We aren’t testing everyone, and there apparently are people walking around who have the virus and don’t know it. That is why we social distance, along with the fact that we don’t want people coughing or sneezing all over us.

The responder to our friend also wrote: “. . . the possibility of you running into someone who is infected are somewhere between zilch and zero.”

Look, when I buy a lottery ticket, I want to win. When it comes to this virus, that’s a lottery I don’t want to win, and the odds being “between zilch and zero” is still too high.

Look, social distancing works . . . social distancing and properly washing our hands. So let’s keep doing it so that we don’t piss away everything we’ve done to get to this point.

——

After this shopping trip, our friend also suggested: “What’s worrying me is people’s disregard for the rules and especially those wearing masks who waltz around the stores like they are indestructible.”

I have gotten to the stage where when I see someone wearing a mask I think: 1. Does that mean the person is infected?, and, 2. Is that person going to cough or sneeze?

So I try to steer clear of those people.

——

You will recall that Stephen Gillis, a Vancouver minor hockey coach, underwent a kidney transplant on Feb. 18.

This means that he, like so many transplant patients, has to take anti-rejection medications. These meds suppress a person’s immune system in order to keep his/her system from rejecting the organ that, after all, is a foreign object in a new setting.

Having a compromised immune system means one is much more susceptible to illness and infections than the average person.

And that’s why it is so frustrating to see the way some people carry on during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Here’s a couple of recent Facebook postings by Gillis . . .

“So did the restrictions change in BC or Vancouver? Cause there is currently 8 guys playing soccer, all beside each other, at the park near my house where I take my dog. . . . Hey A-holes, I haven’t been distancing and isolated for almost 40 days so on the first nice day you can play footy. . . . I won’t be surprised if there is another spike, because many people are acting like the pandemic is over.

“The amount of people who don’t keep their distance lately is insane. They’re all out strolling and walking right by me. Do I have to wear a sign or a scarlet letter to let them know I am immuno-suppressed and if I get COVID-19 I could very well die? I know people who have passed or had people passed. You call 311 and in very Vancouver fashion you get a msg that neither the city nor police will enforce it. Then what’s the point?”

My wife, Dorothy, received a kidney more than six years ago. She takes anti-rejection meds twice a day, so lives under the same conditions as does Stephen.

Dorothy hasn’t been in a grocery store in well over a month; you have no idea how hard this is on her because she loves to shop for groceries, which means browsing and taking her time. These days, we order groceries online and then we pick them up. If an item or two is unavailable, I will make a quick run into a small store, get what we need and get out.

Also, don’t forget that when restrictions are loosened and things start to open up again, Dorothy and Stephen — and thousands of others like them — will be among the last to leave their homes in search of some sense of a new normalcy.

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

Kidney walks go virtual on June 7 . . . Western branches get together on Walking the Block

On the off chance that you haven’t seen this five-minute video that has been making the rounds, it just might lighten your day . . . It’s from M*A*S*H and it’s a lot of fun . . . 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WuaDK0mTc4&feature=youtu.be

If you aren’t aware, kidney walks in Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C. and the Yukon have been cancelled for 2020. That doesn’t mean that they have completely disappeared.

No way!

Instead, they all have gone virtual, and we’ll be Walking the Block on June 7 and would like you to join us.

It seems like it was a thousand years ago, but it really Walking thwas less than two months ago — Feb. 22 — when David Ayres came out of the stands to play goal for the Carolina Hurricanes in a 6-3 victory over the host Toronto Maple Leafs.

Ayres, a kidney transplant recipient, now is helping raise funds for the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

Kidney stone saved father’s life. . . . Visit the Kidney Community Kitchen. . . . Stevie Wonder to have transplant

It was a humbling experience to sit in my recliner on Friday evening and again on Saturday and hear from so many people via Twitter, email, text, Messenger, etc. As I sat and pecked away on my laptop all those evenings, it was easy to forget that there actually were folks out there who would be reading whatever it is that I was writing.

Thank you all so much for the kind words. They won’t be forgotten.

But considering the direction that I am taking this site, one note stood out from all the rest. Here is part of it . . .

“Best of luck with the new focus. It does hit a little close to home because three weeks ago my 78-year-old father went to the hospital at my urging to have a kidney stone checked.

“In the process, they found a tumour on one of his kidneys — fortunately, it’s early enough that he’ll be having surgery at the end of this month to have the tumour — and hopefully just a very small portion of the kidney — removed.

“It’s often not a stroke of luck to have a kidney stone, but in this case it was because, if not for that, the tumour wouldn’t have been found until it was too late.

“As the doctor told him, the kidney stone saved his life.”

And then there was the email from a WHL insider that included this:

“I am excited to continue to read your work as a kidney patient who is beginning kidney failure.”

Some food for thought from the Kidney Foundation of Canada/B.C. & Yukon Branch. . . .

One in 10 Canadians live with kidney disease or are at risk – most are unaware of this. . . .

You can lose up to 80 per cent of your kidney function before experiencing symptoms. . . .

As of December 2018, there were 665 people in B.C. waiting for (an organ) transplant, with 528 of those being kidney patients. In 2018, 335 kidney transplants were performed in B.C.

It stands to reason that diet is of utmost importance to folks who deal with kidney disease of one type or another. . . . With that in mind, you should be aware of the Kidney Community Kitchen, a creation of the Kidney Foundation of Canada. The tweet below highlights Classic Hamburgers and the recipe is available by following the link. . . . At the site, there also is an areas that allows you to browse recipes by meal type. Check it out.

It was over a month ago when Stevie Wonder informed concert-goers in London, England, that he is scheduled to undergo a kidney transplant late in September. Yes, he said, a donor has been found.

——

Little is know about what got Stevie Wonder to the point where he needs a kidney transplant. He made the announcement in London to quell rumours about his health, but there don’t appear to have been any statements made since then.

Nina Shapiro, who writes about health-related issues, has more right here.

If you’re new here, Dorothy, my wife of more than 47 years, has had a kidney transplant and her immune system now is compromised. There are a lot of people walking around out there who are just like her, which is just one more reason why immunization is so important.