Welcome to Linda Gromko's Blog

Thank you for visiting my new blog. As a family physician, I've known about kidney disease for many years. But you never learn about something as deeply as when someone you love is immediately impacted. In my case, I took a crash course on kidney failure two years ago when my husband, Steve, tumbled headlong into acute renal failure: his creatinine blasting from an abnormally high level of four to an unbelievable ten in only two weeks! He required urgent kidney dialysis, via a central line--an IV placed in his neck. To do no treatment would result in death in one to two weeks.

Over the past two years, we've learned an unbelievable amount of information. We've also come to terms with living with this potentially terminal disease. We've learned a great deal about how kidney failure impacts a family.

Steve and I avidly embraced the elegant technology of Home Hemodialysis. In fact, we became so invested in making it better that a colleague and I wrote a book entitled "Arranging Your Life When Dialysis Comes Home: 'The Underwear Factor.'" It is our sincere hope that this guidebook will help pave the way for others who now face what we experienced only two years ago. Steve and I would have ached for such a guidebook. (Available through http://www.arrange2live.com/ or http://www.arrange2live.org/.)

I have also written a gritty, "R-rated" (R for language) memoir about our first year of Steve's kidney challenges. "Complications: A Doctor's Love Story" is now available in bookstores. The feedback has been that it is an intense, highly personal read. How I wish it were fiction! (Available through http://www.lindagromkomd.com/.)

The purpose of this blog is to explore issues related to kidney care in the home, and to support other caregivers in the process.

Thank you for visiting my blog!
Linda Gromko, MD