Going Into My 11-Yr Old Son's Class to Speak About Dialysis and Kidney Failure

[Cordelia]

I have volunteered to go into my son's 5th Grade class to speak about dialysis and kidney disease. I have never done public speaking at least not since school myself so I'm pretty rusty.       

His class is studying the kidneys in his science class so I thought maybe I could talk about what happens when the kidneys fail and don't work properly.

For props I managed to get a dialyzer from my unit so I can show the kids what an artificial/mechanical  kidney looks like....(my nurse this am was super sweet and let me have an old bum one.....anyways..... I'm wondering what/how I should explain in simple terms about what the jugs of the dialysate really do/are. I'm sure the kids will ask what the 'jugs' are for once they see the pic I have.   How would I best describe that to kids?

I'm getting some booklets mailed to me about kidney disease from the Kidney Foundation. Also, maybe a Sidney the Kidney too.

Any suggestions? Advice?

I'm thinking of talking moreso about my personal experience but keep it simple and not complicated so the kids can understand.

I have a good sized photo of myself on the dialysis machine too so I'm hoping that will help as a visual too.     

I'm really excited and nervous.         

[galvo]

Sounds great. Let us know how it goes.

[YLGuy]

If you have a fistula you should bring a stethoscope and let them listen.

[kevinswife]

This may be a great opportunity to talk about organ donation, too!   

[bette1]

I think you should make it as simple as possible and try not to scare them.   Good luck.  What a great opportunity for your son's class.

[MooseMom]

It occurs to me that Kidney School might help you find a way to explain things simply; I personally found it to be the most straightforward, informative and simple tool to explain kidney failure and dialysis. 

I wonder if it might be kinda cool to talk about some celebrities who've had kidney problems.

This is a great thing you're doing, and important, too!  When will you be giving your presentation?  I can't wait to see how it goes.

[Restorer]

The simplest way to describe the jugs might be, "Those are the chemicals that are mixed into the water used to rinse the blood, so that it doesn't take out too much of the things in your blood that you need." It might be a good time for an impromptu basic lesson on osmosis too.

[billybags]

What a brilliant idea. There are not enough people in the world that can relate to kidney disease until it happens to them. Starting at a young age can give them an incite into it. I would also throw in diabetes, what too many sweet stuff and junk food could lead to. Just keep it simple, 11 year olds are more intelligent than you think. Good luck with it.

[amanda100wilson]

I would love to do this at my son's school.

[Bill Peckham]

About ten years ago a boy I was tutoring brought me for show and tell to talk about dialysis.

What they were very interested in is that people who use dialysis don't pee or that you don't pee enough/the right things. I explained that the problem dialysis trys to fix is that the fluid inside the cells at the tip of your finger to the tip of your toes needs to be cleaned - waste solutes need to be removed - cleaning the blood is how we indirectly clean the fluid in your cells; for every ounce of blood in your body you have four ounces of fluid in your cells and getting that fluid clean is the kidney's (and dialysis's) real job.

When it came time to show my fistula I rolled up my sleeve and started talking about my process for getting on dialysis - aka putting in needles. At that point a boy about 5 rows back fainted and toppled out his chair/desk. I found out later that he was the class bully and never really lived down that he fainted. If I did it again I would deemphasize the needles.

[MooseMom]

Oh yeah, Bill's right!  Talk to them about peeing!  They'll love that.  I'd love to watch them try to get their heads around the whole not peeing thing.  LOL!

[Chris]

This is a tough one, I tried public speaking for the NKF at high schools, and junior high schools. I was trying to get my fear of public speaking to go away, but it made t worse! I studied, brought pictures, and other nformation which ended up being over prepared.  was more set up for adult listeners  think. So when I began to talk,  just pretty much threw out all that information and went with personal experience and a small explanation of what the kidneys do, how things effect their function, and a little about dialysis. So use the kiss method, keep it smple and stupid comes to mind

[Poppylicious]

They will definitely love the not peeing side of it!  Maybe that should be part of your introduction, to grab their attention.  Hope it goes well!

[Stacy Without An E]

You could talk about how jealous you are of your blood because it gets to leave your body and travel through tubes like a roller coaster.  It spins and twirls and loops around the machine and through the giant Dialysis filter until it returns to your body and the ride is over.

But wait!  Your blood doesn't have to stand in line or get a fast pass...it gets to go again right away!  The ride lasts three hours until its time to go home.

Kids love theme parks, so that might help them relate to your Dialysis story better.

[Cordelia]

Oh my goodness! I'm so amazed by all the EXCELLENT advice/suggestions and compliments! Thank you ALL!  I reallly value all of your opinions and suggestions!                      

I giggled at some of your suggestions......about the peeing.....the rollercoaster, gosh, I'm just amazed!!!!!!!    I think your ideas are just fantastic and I will be jotting them down on paper for ideas for my presentation!

I think someone said here about deemphasizing the needles, and not to scare the kids,  I very much agree. I don't want to be the cause of anyone fainting!   Someone else mentioned here about the idea of the stethescope....I LOVE that idea however my nurses are asking me not to draw attention to my fistula because it is so new.  I am to get my catheter out soon so they don't want anything postponing that so I have to listen.   I was like AWWWWW! LOL its SUCH a great idea and I figured they're not 'touching' my arm using a stethescope but still, they don't want me drawing attention to it at all.  As they put it, it's my lifeline and don't jepordize it.   i will listen and not rsk it.

I did get an artificial kidney and I am getting a bunch of show and tell books from the Kidney Foundation. So, I'll have a few props.       

I totally agree about keeping it simple!   LOL I love the "KISS" method, I giggled at the abrevation of that too         

Thank you so much Restorer for explaining in  simple terms on the jugs too, I reallly appreciate that!!         

I'm planning to go in on Friday of next week on the 27th!               

And, I think it's totally awesome that it's organ and tissue donation awareness  week, I plan to highlight that too. Maybe I could see if the teacher can ask the kids to all wear green next Friday, that would be so cool!       

I'm thinking of a theme  for my presention and possibly calling it,      "Kidneys Are Kool!"

I'll keep you all posted on how it goes! I'm so excited!         

[MooseMom]

I think I dreamed about talking to kids about kidneys and dialysis because when I woke up this morning, I was thinking of your speech.

Here's an idea:

Start off by asking the kids, "Who ate this morning?"  Let them raise their hands.  Get them involved in the discussion.

Then ask, "Who has had anything to drink today?"  Let them raise their hands again.

Since you've said that they are studying the kidneys, they already have some idea of what these organs do, so maybe next you could ask, "What do you think would happen if you couldn't pee any more?"  Let their imaginations run wild!  Then you can raise the idea of artificial kidneys.

I can't wait to hear all about your speech!  I wish we could all be there!

[Restorer]

Since you've said that they are studying the kidneys, they already have some idea of what these organs do, so maybe next you could ask, "What do you think would happen if you couldn't pee any more?"  Let their imaginations run wild!  Then you can raise the idea of artificial kidneys.

I bet one of the answers will be, "You can't pee so your bladder keeps filling up until it explodes!" and then the class erupts in silly laughter. 

And then you clarify that you mean what if you didn't even make any pee to fill up your bladder, that your bladder was always empty and you never had to pee. Then all the kids think about how nice that would be, not to have to pee ever, and then you can explain, "well, it's not so good, because your kidneys do a lot of important things" and then explain what they do and why they need their kidneys.

[MooseMom]

Exactly!  Even the wrong answer can start an interesting and fun conversation.

[Cordelia]

            I love your suggestions!!!!              

[Cordelia]

I'm going tomorrow afternoon. I am so excited. A little nervous but am moreso excited. I'll report back to let you all know how it went!   

My son said the kids are really excited and keep asking if "HIS MOM" is still coming in tomorrow       

[amanda100wilson]

This prompted me to contact the middle school that my son is going into next year, since it seems very relevant as they do a sponsored event for juvenile diabetes.  Very positive response towards my offer so far. 

[Whamo]

There are some good videos on youtube about dialysis and fistulas.

[Cordelia]

This prompted me to contact the middle school that my son is going into next year, since it seems very relevant as they do a sponsored event for juvenile diabetes.  Very positive response towards my offer so far.

That's great!           What grade level will it be?    This is awesome!!!                       

[Cordelia]

It went SO good!!!!!!               

I'm so glad that I went and spoke, the kids really were engaged in my presentation! They asked so many really good questions that I answered along the way!       

The kids couldn't get over the whole "not peeing" thing                    Some of their answers cracked me up when I asked them what they thought would happen if you couldn't pee!     

They really enjoyed my presentation and I really quite enjoyed speaking. I wasn't half as nervous as I thought I would be, so that was good!

If I'm asked for another class, I think I'll go again! I really LOVED this!!!!!!!!!!             

[sbmyluv]

That' s wonderful!!!  I could imagine the questions they asked you about not peeing.  because i get questions from adults all the time when that topic comes up and it's like  a to get them to understand. lol

Congrats on overcoming public speaking.