Where I will Be Next Week

[Red from Canada]

Hi guys!  Well, my PD is back working again, so far.  While I was on Hemo, I signed up for a week at Lions Camp Dorset.  Google it.  It is very interesting.  It is open to all dialysis patients in Ontario and I only heard of it by chance.  Does anyone else out there have a facility like this for a bit of a break?  We leave tomorrow and will be back next Sunday, so I will let you know how it goes.   Gail, did you know about this?

[Lori1851]

 
Have a wonderful time!!!!!
Lori/Indiana

[okarol]

I just read about it. http://www.lionscampdorset.on.ca/ Had never heard of it before. It sounds great:

Camp Dorset is a resort in Ontario, Canada, for Ontarians on kidney dialysis. The resort has a dialysis unit onsite in order to provide guests in renal failure with their dialysis three times a week. It also provides an excellent opportunity to experience the great outdoors; get back to nature; and enjoy a relaxing atmosphere away from the stresses of everyday life.

I hope you have a great time! 

[G-Ma]

sounds great, have fun.

[circleNthedrain]

Sounds great!  Let us know how it goes.  Have fun!

[Joe Paul]

Glad the PD is working again Red. No camps like that around here I know of, but it sounds great. Have a good time 

[paris]

   Red, have a great time. Rest, relax and enjoy     We need more places like this.

[Bajanne]

That sounds absolutely marvellous.  Have a great time (says Bajanne, jealously wishing she could be there)!!

[pelagia]

enjoy!

[Jay72]

Have a great time I have been there twice.

[devon]

Oh man! I would LOVE to spend some time in great outdoors!  What a WONDERFUL idea!  Have a GREAT time!

-Devon

[stauffenberg]

One of thenurses at my old dialysis unit was trying to persuade people to go there for a while, but I was surprised when she mentioned that they feed the patients there a steady diet of hotdogs!  When I pointed dout that hotdogs are forbidden to dialysis patients (too much phosphorous and salt in the processed meat), she said, "Yes, we know, but it's just too difficult to prepare anything else to feed so many people."  Oh, I thought, I get it, if we patients find something diffcult, we just have to accept it, but when it comes to the medical profession being inconvenienced in the slightest by having to comply with the strictures they insist we endure all the time, then these requirements can be relaxed!

[Red from Canada]

I'm back, after a wonderful week!  Stauff, I don't know where that nurse got her info!  The cottages and efficiencies, you bring your own food and bedding.  We were in the full hookup campground area (water, sewer, electricity and also had our own food.  That is  NOT supplied.  They had canoes, boats, paddleboats, tennis courts, nature trails, campfire nights where the recreation instructors made S'mores for the children of families with a patient there.  There is a heated indoor pool and hot tub.  They had a massage therapist avialable for $40. per hour.  They had a Tai Chi instructor(no charge)  You could participate in as much or as little as you wished.  It is just outside Dorset, which is a picturesque little town with restaurants and a full grocery and General Store.  I wish every State and Province would do something like this for their Kidney patients.  It is run by the Lions Clubs of Ontario in conjunction with the Kidney Foundation, and maintained by a large group of dedicated volunteers.  Each cottage is sponsored and maintained by a different chapter of the Lions. and Burlington, where I live maintains the Medical Centre.
  16 stations, Fresenius machines and nursing staff from the local hospital and whichever hospital is up that week.  It runs for 10 weeks each summer.

[okarol]

Did you enjoy yourself? What did you do while there? (favorite thing) Would you go back again next year?

[Red from Canada]

Hi Okarol!  Yes, I would love to go back again.   The potluck supper was fun.  The bingo night was hilarious.  Each person brings a small item( one or 2 dollars) for the prize table.  They let some of the little kids call the numbers and whole families got involved.!  I liked the boat rides on the lake, the campfires and friendly happy people, both patients and staff!   What an upper and what beautifull country to explore!  Hundreds of lakes, rivers and valleys.  Your stay has to be approved by your nephrologist and each hospital in the prince is assigned a week to go.  The Kidney Foundation of Canada subsidizes each patient by donated 200$ from your local kidney chapter.  They rent to corporations and conventions in the off season in order to get funds to run it for the patients for the summer.

[paris]

Red, sounds like it was a perfect time away.   I do wish there were more places like this. It is a great idea.  Glad you had a good time.

[monrein]

I used to know three nurses who volunteered their time there and they really enjoyed seeing and getting to know patients away from clinic or hospital settings.  It's a terrific program and so nice that families can get to have a nice vacation together.  I used to volunteer at the Kidney Foundation (peer support committee) and this was one of that committee's programs and a very popular one it was too.

So delighted that you had fun Red.