DC Trip

Last week I was in DC for the launching of the National Kidney Foundation's "People Like Us" initiative. They had over 100 people from around the country with kidney disease, on dialysis (hemo or PD), or have had a transplant (or 2 or 3). They are trying to raise the political awareness of kidney patients inhopes of changing certain policies and laws.

I love DC. I love the restaurants. I love the monuments and all of the history there. I always have tons of fun in DC and look forward to going back.

I ran into a bunch of people I know from here that were there for various reasons. I was surprised at how many people I ran into.

One day while taking a cab from Capitol Hill to where the conference was at, I noticed that my driver was auditioning for the Nextel cup. He was doing 75-80+ mph through the streets of DC. I am serious about this.

One of the great things about this conference was the interaction with people that have been or are going through some of the things that I am going through. I learned some things about PD that I didnt know by talking to people that have been on PD for several years. A group of us went out to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (also the last night of the conference). One woman had just been diagnosed with kidney disease and not yet on any type of dialysis was full of questions and I hope that we were of some help to her.

I met one family that their son was diagnosed with kidney disease about a year ago. His mom organized a "walk-a-thon" and raised over $40,000 for the kidney foundation or kidney research or something like that. I met a transplant recipient in California that started a prom for transplant recipient teenagers. She has some ties in the entertainment community and is able to get A-list Hollywood stars to show up. Lots of great stories of people like this, people like me.




On a side-note... if you know me you know I adore my neice. She is 3 years old and thinks her Uncle is the coolest guy in the world (even if she doesnt see me that often because of the distance we live apart) and who I am to disagree? She and her mom were down about a month ago. She told me that she and her mom had been in a "big walk" the weekend before coming down to help people like me get well.