Kris, Arlene, Abby -- You are all doing such a terrific job of overseeing Bill's care, despite the extreme exhaustion and stress you must be feeling. In my experience, family has to be aggressive in demanding proper care even at the best hospitals. Infection is also a major problem, so the gown & glove mentality might help until Bill can move to a less infectious environment. (I'm gonna grit my teeth momentarily and ignore the fact that the bacterial infection came from the hospital's own dialysis catheter...)

Today, I'll look into the general issues of 1) weight loss connected with dialysis and 2) necessary caloric intake for someone in Bill's condition. I'm encouraged by Dr. Kohlberg's caloric increase, but maybe some general info will help us to better understand how to turn the weight loss around. I'm also going to try to find out more about medical case managers who can stick with one patient's progress over the long term. Don't know if any of this will help, but I'll report back with whatever info I can drum up. My favorite professor once taught me that knowledge rules.     Janet