2024-10-02 Instagram Live - Kidney Q&A

Living Well with Kidney Disease

IG Live 10.02.2024 – DPC Education Center’s Healthcare Consultant, Velma Scantlebury, MD, went Live on Instagram to answer your kidney related questions. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Dr. Scantlebury talks about the importance of not only breast cancer screenings for women but staying up-to-date on all cancer screenings for both dialysis and transplant patients. This month, she also discusses some ways to help comfort someone who may be ineligible for a transplant, if you can have your fistula removed after transplant, and many other kidney-related topics.

For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Dr. Scantlebury highlighted not only how important it is for all women to get screenings when eligible and to do monthly self-exams, but she also discusses the particular importance for kidney patients to say up to date on their cancer screenings. Whether you’re a dialysis patient, on the transplant list, or have had a kidney transplant, adhering to all cancer screening guidelines helps your healthcare team address any possible issues right away and helps keep you eligible for transplant if you are on the transplant list.

When it comes to transplant, though it is often the goal of most patients, there are sometimes that a patient isn’t eligible for a transplant, which can be difficult to hear. Dr. Scantlebury discusses how transplant has a risk/benefit ratio, and how there are still many ways to optimize your function on dialysis and lead a great life. She talks about fistulas and why, usually, they are not removed after transplant and how they can actually be useful for transplant patients sometimes if they need an infusion. Additionally, Dr. Scantlebury talks about needing insulin after a pancreas transplant, embolization of a kidney, and answers many other important patient questions.

If you have your own questions you’d like to have the doctor answer, tune in for our Live events on both Instagram and Facebook:

- IG Live @patientcitizens the first Wednesday of each month, 12:30pm EST
- Facebook Live www.facebook.com/patientcitizens the third Wednesday of each month, 12:30pm EST