Checking in too :)

[Guest guest]

Well I got back from DC on Friday night and was utterly EXHAUSTED!!!

But in a very good way. Friday was my husband's 35th birthday so

we ended up celebrating on Saturday and I am just now able to get back

on the computer for the first time in almost a week.

It was a real privelege to meet several of the Igan group

face-to-face, I've never actually *met* anyone who is actively dealing

with CKD before. , , Cy, Bonnie and her husband are all

warm, wonderful people. and Eddie are two really great kids

and they have such positive attitudes. I wish I had been able to meet

someone my age who was dealing with the same issues I was when I was

sick as a kid with this disease - that's why I was determined they

needed to meet.

I was amazed at the cross-section of patients that NKF had chosen for

their program and they each had their own story to tell. I was trying

to make a point of sitting at a different table for each event so that

I could meet as many people as I could and understand what their

issues were. There was a cabbie from Queens, a librarian from the

engineering library at a university in Illinois, a woman who oversaw

the center that my brother-in-law works in (small world!!), a former

SF 49r, a retired husband and wife from Iowa who are taking two months

to visit family across the US on their way back home, a woman who

donated her kidney to her 69 y.o. mother, a blind woman and her

assistant, it just goes on and on. Oh, and the director of the board

of directors of the NKF is moving to my town in the next few months.

Anyway, while I'm glad to be home I do wish I had more time to get to

know people. Two days is an awfully short time. I've already

scheduled an appointment with my first Congressman, his home office is

just a few blocks from my house and he's a mover and shaker on the

Ways and Means committee and is in the Health Sub-committee. I'm

going to see if he's available for a tour of the local dialysis center.

Kathleen

P.S. We had a 4.1 magnitude earthquake early this morning, terrified

the poor cats but it wasn't enough to move anything on the shelves.

It gave us a charge of adrenaline that still hasn't quite worn off

yet. LOL!