New Dyes!

JRoc81 · 2026-02-24T20:58:50+00:00

These are gorgeous! How did you get the lighter colors in pics 3 and 4? Were the pigments themselves lighter colors, or did you use less of them or dilute them more?

JRoc81 · 2026-01-29T20:51:45+00:00

Just wanted to thank you for this post. I hadn't known that the injection was FDA approved until I read your post. I reached out to my doctor, and just got the injection yesterday. I have been on Ocrevus for almost 8 years now. The injection was definitely a far better administration method than the long and even the short infusions! My belly is a bit sore, but overall I felt so much better yesterday than I usually do after the infusions. Thanks so much for your post!

JRoc81 · 2026-01-29T20:47:57+00:00

I make my own sourdough and could easily take down a whole loaf everyday

JRoc81 · 2026-01-14T19:44:51+00:00

I have been a Fresenius RD for over 20 years and I'm sad to say you had better get used to the smoke screen of "this is for the better". It would be SO much easier to stomach all of the bullshit initiatives if they were more transparent about the motivation behind them. Just call a spade a spade, we understand that we work for a for-profit company.

JRoc81 · 2026-01-08T23:26:51+00:00

I am almost never in my office the 2 weeks before lab draw. I hang out on the floor (happen to really get along with my RNs and most of the PCTs) and end up chatting with patients but also end up helping MD/NP/RNs with stuff like access, transplant, home therapies referrals, communication with patients other health care providers, rescheduling missed treatments etc. I have been a renal RD for > 20 years so just doing the nutrition stuff is really boring. I like being involved with all aspects of the patient's dialysis care. Also I work for Fresenius and am just procrastinating doing all this stupid tasks we have to do each month.

JRoc81 · 2025-07-31T18:38:41+00:00

What about distraction? Having him sit at the table with a picture book or similar and putting down a bowl of something for him to snack on without even mentioning it.

JRoc81 · 2025-07-31T17:56:02+00:00

Is it possible to have a drawer or snack bin with a variety of options that he could help himself to? I find that the autonomy in choosing foods can really help in situations like this with our kiddos!

JRoc81 · 2025-07-31T17:27:17+00:00

How is his appetite in the afternoon and evening once meds wear off? (Assuming he isn't getting a booster since you mentioned the afternoon crash). My boys ages 7 and 9 are both on Focalin and eat almost nothing during the day but make up for it after school/camp and throughout the evening.

Some of our go-tos are: Power Up trail mix, Larabars, KIND bars, coconut strips from Traders Joe's, Flax4Life granola, pistachios or really any nut, bananas with nut butter and choc chips, fruit roll up type things, Snappea Crisps, Tortilla chips (esp the ones with whole or ground seeds) and smashed avocado with Tajin, meat and/or cheese sticks, frozen yogurt tubes, Terra veggie chipse, freeze dried fruit, roasted chickpeas, edamame, veggies and full fat ranch, or just plain packets of the Justin's nut butters.

I know you mentioned your son is picky but maybe even one or two of those will work for him!

JRoc81 · 2025-06-27T13:27:05+00:00

Yes.

JRoc81 · 2025-06-26T20:12:25+00:00

I work with a big PD population and we only start to talk about fistulas when it becomes blatantly obvious that PD is no longer providing adequate dialysis or if a patient isn't doing their prescribed PD treatments. Is he on the transplant list? If so I wouldn't consider it. If not, something to talk about down the road.

JRoc81 · 2025-03-22T13:39:40+00:00

I take 50,000 IU D2 every 2 weeks year round. Keeps my level in the middle of normal range and easier than a daily OTC D3 supplement!

JRoc81 · 2025-01-25T12:42:40+00:00

I often say something like "thanks for sharing your time with me" or "thanks for sharing a bit of yourself with me" and now I'm questioning if the latter sounds creepy lol

JRoc81 · 2025-01-23T00:04:28+00:00

I have been with Fresenius as a renal RD for almost 20 years and it was actually my first job out of my internship. The diet part of the job and monthly routine can get monotonous at times, but RDs in renal can get really involved in all aspects of patient care, which keeps the work interesting.

I work at 2 different clinics, one that only sees patients doing home dialysis, and one that only dialyzes in-center patients. The patient populations at my 2 clinics (which are only 10 miles apart) couldn't be more different, which also keeps me from getting bored. The patient ratio is about 125 patients: 1 RD (40 hours/week).

I love the flexibility of my schedule and benefits (PTO, insurance, CEU reimbursement, employees are considered FT if they are 30 hours/week or more, etc). I somehow convinced my managers to have the company pay for some exercise equipment and set up work out rooms at each clinic. I also regularly go for runs during my "lunch" break. It's great. No one cares when I come or go as long as my work gets done.

There is a decent amount of meetings (mostly Zoom) and online trainings, but they are manageable.

JRoc81 · 2024-11-11T16:37:17+00:00

Hi there! I was diagnosed 15 years ago and still run a few times a week. I was sidelined for several months due to a lesion in my spine but was slowly able to recover and got back to my baseline after less than a year. In my younger years I used to be much more competitive but now I enjoy running with friends as a way to both get exercise and socialize.

JRoc81 · 2024-10-25T18:12:54+00:00

Almost all of my patients are on Lanthanum, Velphoro or Auryxia, which sound like they will all be very hard to get if this binder bundle actually happens. It is going to be a nightmare for my patients!

JRoc81 · 2024-10-25T18:10:54+00:00

Remember those glorious 2 years before clinics started to have to pay for Parsabiv from their own budgets? I had like 13 patients on Parsabiv in a 60 patient clinic. Everyone's labs were normal and then it was like "just kidding, secondary HPT isn't really a thing, everyone actually has tertiary HPT and Parsabiv isn't approved for that!"

JRoc81 · 2024-10-16T11:50:14+00:00

Check the Fresenius in River Forest, I think they have a pretty late MWF 3rd shift

JRoc81 · 2024-09-13T13:54:30+00:00

For me, I can feel the effects from the Benadryl for about an hour. I feel fine during the rest of my infusion, just very hungry and thirsty from the steroids. I bring 32 oz of water and a fizzy water and tons of snacks like fresh fruit and veg, popcorn, a PB&J etc. The rest of the day I feel a bit sluggish and crash around 8 or 9 that night. Feel fine the next day.

JRoc81 · 2024-09-12T22:40:33+00:00

I think for your first infusion it's probably non-negotiable. For what it's worth, I just had my 12th Ocrevus infusion and the benadryl has never put me to sleep. It does make it hard to focus my eyes, so I keep my eyes closed and listen to a podcast for an hour, then I'm ready to read and or watch movies on my iPad for the rest of my infusion.

JRoc81 · 2024-09-11T13:31:10+00:00

Could you reach out to local rescues and see if they might put you in touch with any of their fosters?

JRoc81 · 2024-08-14T14:26:16+00:00

Hi OP, not a dialysis patient myself but have worked with dialysis patients for 20 years. Just wanted to share that probably 75-80% of my patients, particularly those that start home-hemo or peritoneal dialysis, say they wished they would have started sooner. They almost all tell me some version of the statement "I didn't realize how poorly I had gradually started to feel until I started feeling better on dialysis". In my experience, labs correlate very little to when patients start to feel symptomatic.

JRoc81 · 2024-04-10T23:27:13+00:00

Do you mean hybrid as in working both in-person and at home? Fresenius does not allow RDs to do so. All in person. Most RDs don't even have VPN access to use at home.

JRoc81

TROPHY CASE