Egg coloring teaches kidney patients about disease

Egg coloring teaches kidney patients about disease

— By Brendan Giusti — The Daily Times
Posted: 04/10/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT

FARMINGTON — Patients at DaVita Four Corners Dialysis colored Easter eggs Thursday as a way to learn more about kidney disease.

"This is just a hands-on visual for us," said Dianna Collins, a registered dietitian and licensed dietitian at DaVita. "And it's fun."

But there was a serious side to the craft as well.

Dialysis patients need more protein in their diets than people who don't suffer from end-stage kidney disease, said Joyce Hachadourian, a licensed independent social worker at DaVita.

And the eggs were a teaching tool.

"The more you know, the better choices you can make," Hachadourian said.

Painting eggs, which added a visual aspect to the lesson, was a fun way to remind people to incorporate enough protein-rich foods in their diet, she said.

"It's another way to try to encourage memory," she said of the hands-on lesson.

Dialysis removes toxins from patients' blood that ordinarily would be filtered out of the system by healthy kidneys, Hachadourian said. Proteins, however, also are filtered out of the body through the process, making it necessary that dialysis patients consume higher amounts of protein to replenish what is lost through the filtering process.

DaVita sees 186 patients per week at their Farmington center and through home units.

"That's forever unless you get a transplant," Collins said.

Patients typically have three sessions of dialysis per week at the center, lasting an average of four hours per session.

And patients at the center come from all walks of life.

"It can happen to anyone. It can happen at any time," Hachadourian said.

Patients range in age from age 20 to 93.

"The biggest cause of renal failure is diabetes and high blood pressure," Hachadourian said.

Navajo patients make up 61 percent of those treated at the Farmington center. The majority of their cases are a result of adult onset Diabetes, Hachadourian said.

Coloring eggs was a way to teach patients about a diet appropriate for dialysis treatment.

"Diet is something people can control," Hachadourian said.

There are free informational sessions from 3 to 5 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of every month at DaVita Four Corners Dialysis, 801 W. Broadway.

Topics include treatment options, diet solutions and dialysis payment options.

Classes are open to the public.

For more information, including high protein recipes, visit www.davita.com.

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