The Journey Continues

Kidney recipients Della Major and Quin Taylor share their stories and talk about how the Take Charge self-management program empowered them to advocate for themselves. Now they're serving as co-facilitators to teach others how to take charge of their own health.

Marisol Sierra spends her days caring for dialysis patients.  When her partner Eldin was diagnosed with kidney failure, her caregiving work became a 24-hour job. Marisol shares how to prevent the strain caregiving can cause on a relationship and ways caregivers can avoid burnout.

This episode is sponsored by Fresenius Kidney Care. Learn more at https://www.freseniuskidneycare.com/

At the height of her modeling career, Alexis Conell received a shocking diagnosis. While the news may have put her career on hold, it couldn't stop her drive to be healthy and strong... and inspire others to do the same.

This week on The Journey Continues, we’re sharing an episode of Hot Topics in Kidney Health where we’ll take a deep dive into sodium. Most patients on dialysis need to limit the amount of sodium in their diets. But how much sodium is safe and what are some ways to add flavor to your diet? Our experts Dr. Melissa Prest and Chef Duane Sunwold cover examples of high sodium foods, recommendations for low sodium substitutes, and how much sodium people with kidney disease should have as a part of a healthy diet.

Selena Gomez fan Emily Ward never imagined she and the singer would have so much in common until she learned she too would need a kidney transplant. She and her dad and kidney donor Bob kept positive through a tough two years of diagnosis, illness, and great loss.

Bringing home a new baby with complex kidney issues when you have four other children and you’re living far from home can be completely overwhelming. Clarissa Lee shares about her pregnancy, the measures she took to ensure her baby had the best care possible, and we hear about the inspiring life her son Austin is living now.

Laurie Lee and Dan Dickinson are the father-daughter duo behind Transplant Village.  As a kidney donor and liver recipient, their experiences help them guide and coach others facing a transplant or considering living donation. In honor of National Donor Sabbath, they want to lovingly dedicate this episode to Dan’s deceased liver donor and Laurie’s kidney recipient saying “they are strangers to us but they both play a vital role in this family story about giving and receiving.”

In this episode from Gift of Hope’s podcast “Let’s Talk Hope” guests Dr. Catalina Ramos-Hernandez and Jennifer Aguilar of the Illinois Transplant Fund continue the discussion about the financial, cultural, and language barriers that Latino patients can face when in need of a life-saving transplant.

Organ failure doesn’t care about immigration status.  So when Gerardo Huerta’s wife needed a life-saving kidney transplant, the Illinois Transplant Fund (ITF) was there to help. ITF founder Kevin Cmunt shares the inspiration behind their important work for which Gerardo and his family are so profoundly grateful.

For more information about the Illinois Transplant Fund, visit https://www.illinoistransplantfund.org/

Jody Wilkey donated a portion of her liver in 2019. When she heard Renee Sample needed a kidney, she didn’t hesitate to volunteer to donate again. But one phone call took them back to square one.