What can you do for me?

Since I am NOT a doctor, I can NOT treat or diagnose you.  I am NOT a replacement for professional medical care.  What I can do is help educate, inspire, and motivate you to become more engaged in your Kidney Disease treatment strategy.  It can be extremely difficult and frustrating to navigate this complex and rarely discussed disease.  As a kidney patient myself I understand the challenges, fear, uncertainty, and doubt that come with having Chronic Kidney Disease.  I can help you to not make that journey alone and build your confidence and understanding of it and your treatment.

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Does this cost anything?

No - this is something I do with my own spare time.  It provides me an outlet and helps me to feel more productive.  You will see some affiliate links to products I use, Shirts I've designed, as well as ads running on many of my videos.  These all help generate a small (and I mean SMALL) amount of money that I put towards the cost of running Dadvice TV.  I'm not looking for any donations, but I am open to companies and organizations helping out.

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When were you diagnosed?

Mid-November 2016.  I was very sick, thought I was suffering from food poisoning for the last 2 weeks.  A visit to my family doctor resulted in me going to the ER and being admitted to the ICU for a week.  The doctors got my GFR up and stable at 13 and I was told I had no chance of getting better.

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Did you know you had kidney issues?

No.  My past labs had never shown any signs of kidney issues and I had no symptoms until about 2 weeks before going to the hospital.

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Does Kidney Disease run in your family?

Yes.  My mom has dealt with it for decades.  This gave me some familiarity with it, but not much.

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Why didn't you go on dialysis?

The doctors told me I had no chance of getting better, but I couldn't understand that.  I'm a super geek, mega nerd, I really enjoy researching and digging into data.  I noticed that so many other countries had far better kidney care outcomes when compared to countries that relied on Dialysis.  I questioned why countries that seemed "third world" had better treatment outcomes.  It was clear to me - they don't rely on dialysis, they rely on diet and lifestyle changes.

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Where you worried?

Of course I was - everyone is who has to face kidney failure and the possibility of changing their life to support dialysis treatments.  Kidney Disease is serious, and kidney failure is extremely dangerous.  Even with my improved kidney health I still have concerns about the far off future, but I focus on the positive and what I can do to stay healthy.

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Do you use any Kidney Cleanse products?

I looked into these when I was first diagnosed.  My kidneys are damaged, not clogged.  Once I understood how kidneys work, I saw that these are just greedy money grabs from people trying to profit from our illness.  I do not use any of them.

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Do you have other health issues besides CKD?

Yes.  I have high blood pressure (managed through medication and diet), am overweight (working on that), have some heart issues, and am getting older (naturally).

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Why did you start Dadvice TV?

I started Dadvice TV a long time ago.  I was to be an outlet for my passion of automotive - test driving vehicles - as well reviews, tips, tricks, and other advice from a Dad.  I have always enjoyed making videos as a hobby, and due to my inner geek, always full of advice and recommendations.  After being diagnosed I changed Dadvice TV to documenting my journey from Kidney Failure.  Then in 2020, I started making videos that were more educational focused.

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Why the change for 2020?

I believe that the core problem with the global epidemic of Kidney Disease comes down to a lack of knowledge.  Doctors have difficulty explaining kidney disease, treatment strategies, and even just the basics of moving forward with kidney disease.  The brochures and handouts provided to patients are 90% badly written, difficult to understand, focused on death, dialysis, and transplant instead of prevention and health.  Then as patients, we don't have a voice to guide us, to inspire us, to help translate the medical jargon into something we understand.  For 2020 I want Dadvice TV to bridge that knowledge gap, so my videos are more focused on individual topics, more facts & data-driven, more on point, and shorter.

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Is there any meaning in the Green and Orange ribbon you use online?

Yes - a lot of meaning.  The green and orange are common colors used to represent kidney disease. I use both of them to show that Kidney Disease usually means you have multiple health issues.  The top of the ribbon is also a different color, a light red which represents heart issues, like high blood pressure and heart disease.

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Is there a Dadvice TV diet?

We are all different, even when we have the same GFR, so there is no 1 diet that works for everyone.  It is best to work with a renal dietitian that can customize your very own diet based on your labs and health.  As your labs change, your renal dietitian can tweak your diet.

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Are there Supplements Dadvice TV recommends?

All supplements need to be recommended to you by your health care team.  It is very dangerous and wreckless to self-prescribe supplements.  There are NO supplements on the planet that will fix/cure/repair physical kidney damage.  Supplements are to fill a deficiency in your diet, not to boost something with the hope that too much makes things better.  That said, I do have certain brands of supplements my doctors recommended for me that I do talk about from time to time.  I like these brands due to my own research and I have spoken directly to the manufacturers.