One of my essentials for dialysis is now my ipad, I might go mad without it! Before that I used my work laptop and watched DVDs and downloaded films on my gig stick. But that was always cumbersome, and not having the ability to look up stuff on the interweb I found frustrating, as my mind quickly wanders due to its inquiring nature. I used my iphone for a couple of weeks to listen to music and watch a few films, but the screen size is really too small. Then Apple wowed us all with the ipad, quite simply brilliant. I can now watch films, TV shows, docos, peruse my library of books, quicly go into the net, zoom around the globe on Google Earth, buy stuff both from Ebay and Trademe, send and receive emails, all using the same lightweight device. How did I cope without it?
Apple works with thousands of software developers over the world to bring us downloadable applications (apps) that we can install on our phones and ipads, and sync them with our home macs as well. From this blog point of view, my favourite renal app is called Kidney Diet. It has a simple clean interface that allows the user to search for foods and then have the nutritional information displayed.
The results give Sodium, Potassium, Phosphorous, Protein and Calries, all in an easy to read format, highlighting values in red if any are considered high, and therefore to be avoided, or taken in moderation. Great! I can now safely wander round the supermarket and rather be in the dark about whether I can eat certain foods, or memorise the long list given to me by my dietitian, i can now look up values there and then and make a purchase based on that. I was shocked to find that strawberries are high in Potassium, as are Cantaloupe and Honeydew melons, so a grumpy summer was had! Luckily Watermelon is not so bad, and blueberries are good too.
I'm not replacing the advice of my dietician, a lovely lady called Lynne Olsen at the ADHB, but rather augmenting her advice, By selecting appropriate food choices I can make the weekend feel better, as the build up of the harmful potassiums and phsophates can be horrible after an extra day of no dialysis. So by avoiding foods high in those substances then my mouth feels less metallic and I am less inclined to be " a bit off".
Being a US based app it does have all the fast food chains over there, so there appears to be a large amount of fast food, but we all know those are bad and all results for those types of fast food appear in red! However there are the basics and most fruits and vegetables are given, which is great for recipes and cooking.
Check out their website for more details or take yourself done to Itunes...
http://www.kidneydiet.com/
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