Here and there, random thoughts on food, photos, marketing, & customer service

Update 4/15/11 I am happy to report that a kidney donor came forward for me and I am scheduled for a transplant early this summer. I want to thank all the people who were tested, those who supported me, the friends, family, doctors, transplant coordinators, MacMedics employees, 4H folks, and people I don’t even know who sent well wishes and good vibes my way and helped spread the word about the need for a donor (A special shout out to Mario Armstrong who did all he could to help get the word out). Most importantly, I’d like to thank my donor, who found me on the Internets and wanted to help. I’m very grateful to her and her willingness to donate one of her kidneys so that I can get my life back.

I plan to leave this page up, as it still attracts a good deal of traffic from my Vegan and Macintosh related posts. Perhaps, it will help someone else get the lifesaving donation that they have been waiting for. After I have my surgery, I’ll try to find a way to make this domain and it’s SEO score work for others who are waiting.

I know for a fact that you can step forward as an altruistic kidney and contact Johns Hopkins (you can call my donor coordinator listed below) and they will test you for free and if you pass the tests, they will match you to someone who needs a new lease on life. My donor and many others have come to donate via Johns Hopkins, as they are known world-wide for their amazing kidney program.

There are over 80,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant, so if this is something you’ve thought about, don’t delay.

Hi,

If you’ve found this page on my Blog, it might be because you’ve been invited to join the “A Kidney For Dana” Facebook page. I have been spreading the word about my kidney search via Facebook, Twitter, and my Blog since September ’09. At the suggestion of a friend I went ahead and created a Facebook “Group” to support my search.

Even if you’re NOT thinking about being a donor, please consider joining my groupanyways and posting something on your Facebook page about it. Someone you know might want to be a donor. Lots of organ donations occur because a friend of a friend passed on the word. There might be someone in your “network” that would like to be tested. If they turn out to be a match for me, imagine how good that would feel if you were able to make that connection?

For all the people (friends, family, AND people I don’t even know) who have posted something on their Facebook Wall about my situation – THANKS!

To all of my friends, family, employees, MacMedics clients, and colleagues, thank you so much for your support so far.

There are thousands of people waiting for a life saving kidney transplant, so if you’re willing to become a fan of “Can this poodle wearing a tinfoil hat get more fans than Glenn Beck?” (261,337 Fans) or the fan page for “Can the Baltimore Ravens get 1000000 fans before the Pittsburgh Steelers” (39,384 Fans), maybe you’d be willing to help spread the word about a life saving kidney donation by joining my page here.

BTW: The Facebook group for the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland only has 177 Fans, so if you’re supporting me or someone else with kidney issues here in the great state of Maryland, then please consider becoming a “Fan” of their page as well.

Since my kidney doctors have now charted my kidney decline based on the data from the last 2 years of blood tests, they are encouraging me to ramp up my donor search. Based on that recent “push” from them, I’m trying to let everyone in my network know. Maybe you would consider being tested? If so, that’s way more than I could ever ask. But really my goal here is just to get the message to as many people as possible to even up my odds as much as I can.

Update 12/24/10 My creatinine levels (what they use to judge kidney function) have pretty much doubled since last year. Also my phosphorus levels are also now out of whack as well. I’m now taking 800 MG phosphorus binder with every meal in order to push the phosphorus out of my system since my kidneys can’t fully regulate it any longer.

I’m extremely lucky to have the luxury of trying to find a “perfect match” since I’m not so sick, that they will just cram in any old kidney in order to save my life. They want me get a transplant now, while I’m healthy and try to avoid having to take a “deceased donor” kidney. I’ve been feeling pretty good, but I do get a little tired from time to time, but better take care of this issue before I have to go on dialysis. 

For those of you who know me well, you know asking for help is not easy for me. but, this is a case where I could really use some. By becoming a member of my Facebook group, you won’t get a knock on your door for a kidney in the middle of the night, but you can help spread the word about my story. The more folks that hear about it, the better my chances of someone taking action on it.

All of the recent kidney transplant “chains” have been started by one altruistic donor who read about a person in need of a kidney transplant in a newsletter or a church bulletin or something. One altruistic donor can save as many as 16 lives at once! Short of putting an ad in the paper (I’ve thought about it!), the more people who hear about my issue the better. A new variation in kidney paired donation (KPD) — pioneered and developed at Johns Hopkins — could theoretically generate an endless number of transplants.

There’s more info on this topic on my main page (which can be found here), but I often get asked what blood type are you? I’m extremely lucky to be able to accept a kidney from any blood type as I’m a “universal recipient” and I have the blood type AB-. So if you’ve been wondering if YOU can donate a kidney to me based on blood type, the answer is yes. Also, the testing is quick and FREE, but the paperwork and screening takes awhile. If you’ve thought about getting tested for me or someone else, please don’t put it off. The more time and data Johns hopkins has to work with, the better. It’s quick, and it’s free. Johns Hopkins will pay for all testing.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Dana 

You can join my Facebook group here.

You can read my whole story and get more information at http://www.AKidneyForDana.org

I heard that a list of Vegan-Owned businesses in Baltimore, Maryland is coming via Twitter friend @BmoreVegan.

To help get the ball rolling until that happens, I’ve started a small list based on a recent Twitter “tweet” from @BmoreVegan on the topic.

Of course there’s MacMedics.

MacMedics (Apple Authorized Service Provider & Reseller)
http://www.macmedics.com
@MacMedics
A Macintosh Service and Consulting firm which I have owned and operated since 1989

Emilys Desserts (Vegan Bakery)
http://www.emilysdesserts.com
@EmilysDesserts
A 100% Wind Powered Vegan and Gluten Free Dessert company in Baltimore, MD.

Mineral Love (Vegan Cosmetics)
http://minerallove.weebly.com
@mineral_love
Handmade Vegan Mineral Makeup Creator. I love crafts, photography, anything handmade, and of course, makeup!

sevi (Vegan Bodycare)
http://www.ecosevi.com
@ecosevi
vegetarian mama + animal lover, founder of eco sevi: vegan bodycare, skin and hair care + canine grooming products.

Brunies Bakery (Vegan Bakery)
http://www.bruniesbakery.com
@bruniesbakery
2008 City Paper’s Best of Baltimore Vegan Bakery.

The Land Of Kush
http://www.thelandofkush.com
@thelandofkush
The “Ultimate” Vegetarian/Vegan Soul Food Cuisine

So I got word that there was true vegan pizza in Fells Point. With family and in-laws in tow, we had to check it out. We had to wait a bit to get our order in, but when we did it was worth the wait. It’s been about 2 years since I’ve have real pizza from a real restaurant, with anything that even comes close to cheese. This is something I’ve been missing since I went vegan. When one of my son’s friends sent him a text saying that BOP Pizza had “vegan pizza”, we put it on our list. Now I don’t think vegan pizza is what’s BOP is famous for, but it’s nice that they offer it. Some places do offer soy cheese, but that often has casein in it, a common ingredient in soy and veggie type cheese. I e-mailed BOP Pizza to check to see if that is their cheese has casein. They confirmed that their soy cheese is casein free. Nice. Also cool that they took the time to e-mail me back the same day. I told “Mike” that I would be in soon and I was looking forward to it. He said “get ready for the best”. Now that’s taking a strong stance. I guess if Kevin Bacon says “BOP should stand for Baltimore’s only Pizza”, I can take his word for it. I did not have to, as they have about a dozen “Best of Baltimore” plaques hanging on the wall. One of them matches the one I have for MacMedics for ‘Best place to take your sick Mac”. Funny.

I ended up with half of a black olive and mushroom, while my wife opted to go for just plain soy cheese. They also has a vegan soy salad that looked like it might have been a fresh mozzarella thing. We forgot to order it. The pizza was awesome and it was more than what you’d expect for the price. Here, when you order a “large” it really is large. It’s Fells Point, so parking was a bit of an issue, but not a big deal.

We also felt very safe. Two of Baltimore’s finest undercover police offers were there. That was a little bit of shock, when I looked over and say what looked to be a 40 caliber Glock sticking out from under his jacket with the sleeves ripped off. Lets just say if these guys came running after me, I’m not so sure I would have stopped. The guy with the jacket had a bleached ponytail about 18 inches long, and he might have weighed about 240. They kept looking over at me in my muted tone Under Armour and Coyote brown 5.11′s. I guess I did not look like a force to be reckoned while I was eating my vegan pizza.

I stepped outside to take a picture for Facebook, and about 7 or 8 other police officers in tactical
uniforms went in to BOP, so I guess it’s popular place with the police.

I’m looking forward to two slices of left-overs tomorrow for lunch at MacMedics.