Triumph Over Kidney Disease: The Butler Family's Journey of Advocacy and Healthy Choices
Mar 03, 2024Season 1Episode 3
Maurice Carlisle and Ira McAliley
When Mr. Jeffrey Butler, alongside his son Jerry and their friend Maurice Carlisle, sat down to reflect on their kidney health journeys, they unearthed a wealth of wisdom and warnings that could save lives. Through their stories of managing dialysis and the power of informed choices, our latest episode becomes a beacon of hope and a call to action. These gentlemen share not just the stark reality of kidney failure but also the triumph of turning the tide on diabetes with nothing but dietary diligence and steadfast commitment to health.
In an intimate heart-to-heart, we explore the silent threats of hypertension and diabetes, the culprits often lurking behind kidney disease. The Butler family's relentless advocacy for proper care stands as a testament to the strength found in self-advocacy and community support. This episode isn't just another health podcast; it's an inspirational saga filled with personal struggles, societal challenges during a pandemic, and an unwavering commitment to change the narrative around kidney health—one informed decision at a time. Join us and be part of the conversation that could very well change the course of your health journey.
A conversation about the kidneys and what happens when they fail.
When Mr. Jeffrey Butler, alongside his son Jerry and their friend Maurice Carlisle, sat down to reflect on their kidney health journeys, they unearthed a wealth of wisdom and warnings that could save lives. Through their stories of managing dialysis and the power of informed choices, our latest episode becomes a beacon of hope and a call to action. These gentlemen share not just the stark reality of kidney failure but also the triumph of turning the tide on diabetes with nothing but dietary diligence and steadfast commitment to health.
In an intimate heart-to-heart, we explore the silent threats of hypertension and diabetes, the culprits often lurking behind kidney disease. The Butler family's relentless advocacy for proper care stands as a testament to the strength found in self-advocacy and community support. This episode isn't just another health podcast; it's an inspirational saga filled with personal struggles, societal challenges during a pandemic, and an unwavering commitment to change the narrative around kidney health—one informed decision at a time. Join us and be part of the conversation that could very well change the course of your health journey.
A conversation about the kidneys and what happens when they fail.
Speaker 1:
Along with you guys's video as well too.
Speaker 2:
So so as we go that love to ask Mr Butler, if you had Something to say. The folks that are on dialysis are headed towards that, like, do you have a nugget or some nuggets that you can just leave people with?
Speaker 3:
Well, you know as.
Speaker 4:
Educate yourself yeah.
Speaker 3:
I just just educate yourself on dialysis, especially foods. What's the foods that you eat? And Of course, you know what you consume in the fluids and Hopefully, hopefully, that the tax and the nurses that where you receive us care, or as good as the tax that I had at the be the North Ohio Right, especially Maurice, correct, you know.
Speaker 4:
Oh, I'd love to be.
Speaker 1:
I so good reaching out to you and we'll have to have lunch and everything this Disease has been going around over the old light enough. Yeah, yeah, we get rid of these viruses and stuff.
Speaker 2:
Go ahead.
Speaker 3:
Oh yeah, that was another thing with the transplant that oh yeah forward made made it twice as hard for me and everyone else to that had a transplant during that time. Now with COVID with COVID, you know. Stop it because you know you're not allowed to see anyone. He might have to release you from the hospital.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
No, friends, nothing.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, I can say, sister, that what they do.
Speaker 3:
Yeah yeah, your sister dealt with the same thing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean she was in and out of hospital during COVID just with complications from her. You know she had, she had to have her. She had to go back on Himo at a point because her port got infected, so like yeah, so they had to like I think they totally took it out and then she had to go on Himo for a bit until the new one, you know like healed, and then it wasn't much after that, maybe six months out of the timeline, but that she actually got her transplant. So yeah, but you know it doesn't, it doesn't matter that you're almost there, it's like you have to take care right.
Speaker 4:
What do you guys? What do you think I mean? Leading cause of kidney failure is I mean ethnicity, hypertension, what do you I mean?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean dialysis is kidney failure, usually is blood pressure or diabetes or both. Yeah, and they. Just for what I've seen in my career, they just keep changing positions. Right, you know, four years from now it could be diabetes, four years after that it could be high blood pressure. But they, they are one and two, consistently right, I've been a technician, so those are the two leading causes and you know those. Those are issues that don't show up until they do. I mean, you know, most people don't know they have high blood pressure until they get sick. Most people don't know they have diabetes until they get sick. Yeah, all the stuff leading up to that. It's like the silent killer. Is that silent Issue that nobody really knows about?
Speaker 1:
well, it's mostly diet, right? I mean, yes, nated, and I'll just. I'll just speak to my sweetheart here. She was diagnosed with Diabetes by just going in for a checkup and she goes every year for a checkup. This particular she goes in. They say you got diabetes. They put on a bunch of medication. Her family doctor did, I think, pretty much the maximum dose of what she should be taking. I didn't know why he did that, but she eventually decided that she didn't want to take all those meds and she went to a keto diet and Her doctor she asked her doctor to see an endocrinologist, which is a specialist for Diabetes. Her doctor questioned it and so she kind of got in his face and said hey, that's the specialist. You didn't go to school to be a specialist. You didn't take those six years to just treat diabetes patients. Give her a little bit more pushback. And she said you know, I need that referral. He referred her to a endocrinologist and, lo and behold, she was taken off every one of those medications. She is no longer diabetic.
Speaker 4:
Just follows that? Yeah, because she follows a low glycemic index.
Speaker 1:
That's right. So we're basically eating sugary foods and then trying to cover them With medication, right, and so I'm gonna get her on here at some point, ira, and we're gonna interview her and talk to her about that, because I think it can be very helpful to other diabetic patients who are on dialysis. But she actually does not have a designation anymore of diabetes. Her chart doesn't. Her chart doesn't say that she's diabetic anymore. That is huge, because it was all diet and exercise. That's all she did. She bought a palatine and she went on a keto diet. Yeah, you know, it's all.
Speaker 4:
They all make a definitive diagnosis With just lab work, to yes, and they never, they never, ever take a look at the patient. And it's you, you know, even in dialysis. You know doctors in and out once a week, that's it that.
Speaker 1:
If only need to see you once a month, right and seeing you can be, look at your chart Right, physically be laying eyes on you, absolutely because I've had to holler at the kidney doctor at night at the Vita before.
Speaker 3:
Like you say, you know what months a week is. Once a month you might see him go through. Yeah, yeah, yeah and then you had to, you know, get his attention, you know, to come over to you.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 3:
He was just gonna walk by and wave.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I remember, I remember telling you, I said he's here. Yes, now when he, like I'm telling, I'm telling mr Buller said, hey, he's here, you tell him you don't need to run three days a week. And boys I mean and, and I remember when he left you he went over to the nurse's station and one or the girl said, hey, marisa's telling them that stuff.
Speaker 4:
Oh, oh my god.
Speaker 1:
I'll never forget it and it was pretty funny. It was pretty funny and and he's looking at me like, and you know, I never spoke to him after that.
Speaker 3:
With you.
Speaker 1:
Never spoke to me anymore. We just never you know. We just never you know. We spoke. I think we said hi and bye or whatever, but we never had any any kind of a conversation. I remember him asking me one time to. He said I Was taking, I was taking care of a patient and I told him exactly what I was doing. And later that patient went in the hospital and the family members Went to see their mom and they said that she had too much fluid and her like she had fluid in her lungs, and so they asked the doctor. They said well, is Moe trying to kill our mom? And?
Speaker 1:
And I don't know what his specific answer was, but I don't think it was good, because later he came to me in the center and you pull me to the side. He said you can't tell patients what you're doing. And I said, excuse me so.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, he said you can't be telling patients what you're doing. You told that lady you put some, you gave her 200 cc's of fluid and then she ended up going in the hospital that weekend. I said, sir, her blood pressure was 84 when I gave her that 200 cc's of fluid. I said I did exactly what I was supposed to do. And he said, well, don't tell him what you're doing. And I said, sir, I can't, I can't do that. Yeah, we agreed to disagree, but those are some of the things that you know you run into when you're a technician. If you're not a Strong technician, you're gonna get ran right over. It's like being bullied at high school.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean that kid's gonna keep beating you up until you put up your fists. Yeah, if you don't say something, you're gonna keep getting bullied.
Speaker 3:
So I just realized something it's the one for you. I would not have got a transplant as soon as I had it, because I feel that the veto wanted me the hell out of there because of the education that you gave me.
Speaker 1:
Yes, they, they ran me off at you. They gave you a kidney before they ran you off. They ran us off just to say I think we're gonna get you back.
Speaker 4:
We're gonna get you back Right. They had to weigh their options on that.
Speaker 1:
Just get him a kidney man, get him out of our way. Well, good, that's a good thing.
Speaker 3:
That's a good thing, yes, well, it's so good talking with you we won't take anymore of you guys's time, but thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1:
I can't wait to see you and actually shake your hand and give you absolutely, and we'll do that again Let me tell you hi, oh cool. Yeah, I take care of her now Good, good, well, tell her, I said hello.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, I was. Uh, it was, I mean, my pleasure to even be able to speak with you. Yes, thanks a lot for everything you do.
Speaker 2:
Yes, thank you, thank you. Um, just keep you know, we'll all collectively, like now, take care of you guys, so that are just being advocates and just inspiring people to be advocates for themselves. And so you know, just keep spreading the word and and, uh, mr Butler, just keep being strong and being that guy that won't take crap from anybody.
Speaker 1:
That's right.
Speaker 2:
That's right. You know one person at a time. We're gonna make change, so you know it's happening and so thank you for being here, thank you for the great talk and, um, we hope to have this conversation again, because you know the issues aren't going away soon and no, and you're part of the team and people will start to know who you are. You'll become a WD celebrity.
Speaker 1:
Right, right, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3:
Well, thank you. Thanks both of you so much. Appreciate it. Mo has been so great seeing you again. Yes, great seeing you and great seeing you?
Speaker 1:
I hope so, alright.
Speaker 3:
I still have a lot more I don't. I want to talk to you about.
Speaker 1:
Okay, we'll get to it. We'll get to it, okay, well, you guys, hey, thank you Alright, folks.
Speaker 2:
So this is gonna be the end of this episode of what's the Deal with Dialysis, with Mr Jeffrey Butler and his son, jerry, and Maurice Carlisle and myself. We're just gonna say goodbye, have a wonderful day, take care of your stuff and take care of your community and stay safe.