National Kidney Foundation of East Tennessee

Hey everybody,

The other day we visited the Dialysis Center in Blount County where the National Kidney Foundation of East Tennessee works a lot of miracles. We met with Helen and Victoria over there, and they gave us a tour and showed us some of the life-saving technology they have out there.

One thing that blew my mind was how the whole process of dialysis works. It’s amazing how one machine can clean a person’s blood within a matter of hours. Of course, it’s also amazing that it takes a big machine like this to do the work of one set of kidneys:

One thing I really got from this visit is just how important it is for us to be communicating to people the need to find out early if they have problems with their kidneys. That’s one thing The Kidney Foundation is trying to do with their KEEP program, where they’ll come into the workplace and test employees to find out who’s at a high risk for developing kidney disease. (And I will be checkin’ into bringing KEEP to the courthouse so that we can get that testing done for our people over there.)

We just got to do more to publicize how preventable kidney disease is. Of course, brochures like this one help people once they have kidney disease, but to me it's just a reminder that I gotta' do more to let people know:

Helen was saying if you find out early and start making changes to your lifestyle, chances are you can beat it. Because once you’ve got it, you’ve got it. The Kidney Foundation is makin' an impact with their research and helping folks that are on dialysis with transportation to and from the clinic, scales, food supplements, and blood pressure monitors - so many things that these folks just need to live - the kidney foundation is meeting the needs there and that’s where our dollars are going, to help meet those needs. And that money stays in Blount County to help folks in Blount County.

While we were there, we met two people who are on dialysis: a real sweet lady named Gloria and a gentleman named Vern, and both those folks put a real face on a problem in our society: kidney failure. If only they could have caught it early on. We need to do whatever we can to cure kidney failure and prevent kidney failure from now on - whatever research we’re able to do. Ya’ know technology has come such a long way. It’s like one of my favorite songs by Clay Walker, where he says, “Why can a man walk on the moon and we need a place like St. Jude’s?” Alone we can’t answer those questions, but together we can put our efforts into caring upfront for some of the problems we have medically because, for people to have to go through that, it’s heartbreaking.

Thanks for reading, everybody. We’ve had over 600 hits on this blog by almost 300 different people. (So no, not all 600 hits were from me!) Remember to subscribe through the United Way's website and tell your friends. We want all of the people of Blount County to know where their United Way contributions go.

Blog you soon,
Dave Bennett