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1

Starbucks is such the freakin' media slut! Like Chuck himself had offered his kidney. Gah. The donor is a sweet woman, but for her place of employment to crow to the press and imply they had anything to do with it is icky icky icky.

Posted by muggims | March 7, 2008 4:37 PM
2

Does she get a tax writeoff for it, or extra medical coverage from her employer?

Posted by Will in Seattle | March 7, 2008 4:48 PM
3

Sorry 1, but here's an extra hot venti clue: it's about Starbucks because that's where they met and the basis of their acquaintance.

This will be a challenging post for the terminally uber-ironic chairborne hipsters out there - it's not really funny or stupid or corporate greed, man. It's just really sweet.

Posted by Bob | March 7, 2008 4:53 PM
4

Just leave a finger in the jar.

Posted by Fnarf | March 7, 2008 4:53 PM
5

See?

Posted by Bob | March 7, 2008 4:55 PM
6

I love stories like this because my partner of 20 years died last year waiting on a kidney transplant.

Sign those donor cards, folks.

Posted by Wolf | March 7, 2008 4:59 PM
7
Ausnes ... said she had been buying her morning coffee at the Starbucks at North Proctor and 26th streets for three years. She has known for nearly two decades that she has a genetic kidney disease, but recently her kidney function has declined significantly.

I wonder if that daily over-caffeinated crap that Starbuck's calls coffee contributed to the recent deterioration of this woman's kidneys.

Posted by Mahtli69 | March 7, 2008 5:55 PM
8

I'm not sure if you're trying to be funny or not (if you are it's failing desperately), but kidney disease has its own schedule. Coffee has no impact.

Fluid levels are important to those on dialysis, yes. But if you haven't been the patient or caregiver, you really have no basis to comment. Clearly, from your comment, you haven't.

Posted by Wolf | March 7, 2008 6:04 PM
9

@8

Coffee has no impact.

Not true, according to this article, which specifically mentions caffeine and this woman's condition (polycystic kidney disease).

Here's another that is written entirely in hard to understand medical jargon, except for the last sentence "Caffeine is, therefore, a risk factor for the promotion of cyst enlargement in patients with ADPKD."

The fact that the article about the transplant reads like it was written by the Starbucks marketing department only adds to the irony.

Posted by Mahtli69 | March 7, 2008 8:18 PM
10

Can I have the other kidney?

Posted by blackhook | March 8, 2008 2:43 AM
11

FOR ALL THE FUCK HEADS WHO ARE SO IGNORANT

In the past 6 years two of my very best friends have died of kidney failure. Younger women, both got sick and after some weeks died when kidneys failed. One at U Hospital and the other at V Mason - medical care was top drawer.

Serious stuff. Your jokes make me cry.
My donor card is current.

Posted by Bit of Idaho | March 8, 2008 9:31 AM
12

@9:

First off, you're just talking about polycystic kidney disease (a very specific condition), not general kidney disease caused by things like diabetes, hypertension, et cetera.

Second, the first link you provide is animal data and anecdotal evidence. As a medical professional, I disregard both as irrelevant nonsense, as do probably most other reasonable professionals in the field. Calcium excretion is always a problem with kidney disease, no surprise there.

And as to the second link, again, you're talking strictly of PKD amongst the myriad causes of kidney disease. And it's an easily understandable abstract, but without seeing the complete article it's pretty useless. Abstracts are meant only to give a general overview, not to give specifics of cases.

Guess I should have said "in MOST cases, coffee has no impact beyond the fluid level management portion of care for kidney disease patients." I don't specialize in PKD, I have only a general understanding of it. But I have vast experience and background as both a health care worker and caregiver for someone with kidney disease. In other words, yes, I know my shit. From experiences too multiple to mention, including my own personal one that cost me my partner of twenty years.

Sign those donor cards, people. There are currently 75,000 people waiting on a kidney that may or may not ever come.

Posted by Wolf | March 8, 2008 10:05 AM
13

Go read the article about the kidney donor again (specifically, 1st sentence of the 5th paragraph), and you will see that the woman in question has polycystic kidney disease, so the links I provided are relevant.

I'm glad you know your shit, but you could also do a Google search on "caffeine" and "PKD", and you will see that there are numerous articles on the dangers. I picked two that seemed appropriate, but there are many others if you don't like those.

Frankly, I don't know why you are getting so pissed off about this. I am very sorry to hear about your partner, and I apparently touched a nerve. That was not my intention.

Honestly, my very first thought upon reading the article was wondering if there was a connection between the woman's condition and her daily intake of Starbucks (notoriously overcaffeinated) coffee. It didn't take much research to discover that, yes, there is possibly a correlation. At the very least, this woman should not have been drinking coffee every day, and I suspect her doctor would agree with me.

Posted by Mahtli69 | March 8, 2008 10:55 AM
14

Mahtli69, the website you provided also includes discredited urban legends about Coca-Cola being an effective detergent, a bizarre theory about candy causing yeast growth in the human digestive system, and (as Wolf noted) irrelevant information about the effects of caffeine in animal models. It makes some obvious errors in physiology, provides no sources for its claims, and cannot be taken as reliable. Perhaps most unforgivable is the fact that it's mostly an anecdotal report; the plural of anecdote is not data.

The article whose abstract you linked to has an important caveat in the full discussion: it is unknown what the peak caffeine levels are in kidney tissue after ingestion. It is unknown how much caffeine would be present to affect the kidney tissue in the first place. Consider that a search of PubMed turns up a study in which there was no effect on PKD cyst growth with chronic caffeine use in a rat model. The PKD Foundation has no recommendation that people with PKD abstain from caffeine, because there is no evidence that caffeine consumption by itself promotes cyst growth in PKD patients. They do recommend that people limit their caffeine consumption to 2-3 cups of coffee daily, but only because "our bodies don't need caffeine" (true enough). See here:
http://www.pkdcure.org/site/DocServer/Caffeine_-_Summer_2002.pdf?docID=7062
The National Kidney Foundation says that "no specific diet is known to prevent cysts from developing in patients with PKD." Given that ~50% of people with PKD will develop kidney failure by the time they turn 60, I seriously doubt that a daily cup of coffee pushed this woman's renal system over the edge.

None of this, by the way, means that caffeine doesn't have negative effects on people with PKD--it is a hypertensive, after all, and people with poor kidney function don't do well with sudden changes in blood pressure.

Posted by THobbes | March 8, 2008 5:57 PM
15

Mahtli69,

I'm not getting pissed off about this particular conversation and I'm certainly not getting upset with you. Doing so gains me nothing. I appreciate your thoughtful replies.

With PKD, she was predisposed to illness. The caffeine may not have helped, but I'd be willing to say it didn't CAUSE the disease.

Yes, I am outraged that more people don't donate so we can avoid these needless illnesses and deaths (and thank you for your sympathies, truly appreciated). What I'm saying is PKD is just one small part of a wide range of kidney diseases. And in general, the fluid *quantity* is of more importance than the fluid *content* in managing ESRD in general. For those on dialysis, pulling off toxins and excess fluid is a prime goal.

There are drugs--Rocaltrol, several types of phosphate binders, epoetin injections and on and on--to deal with things like calcium, iron, phosphate and other "problem" issues in people with whatever form of ESRD.

I travel and speak about my partner's life, illness and death frequently (he was a celebrity of sorts with a large fan base) and I always implore people at the end of my talks to get those donor cards signed, and I even make them available at presentations along with kidney disease information. The waste of perfectly good donor organs infuriates me no end, and the situation is ironic because we were both donors before he became ill, and I was our facility's transplant program donor-coordinator for many years before he became ill.

The irony of his needing a transplant that never came weighs heavily on me. I guess in some ways, even though I had left that position to take a job in private research years before he became ill, I feel like I've failed him on some level. I couldn't save him even though I wanted to. And yes, I was tested. We weren't a match.

Posted by Wolf | March 8, 2008 6:08 PM
16

THobbes, thanks for the additional info. We were apparently simulposting.

They do recommend that people limit their caffeine consumption to 2-3 cups

This is also given as a general "good health" guideline, not specific to kidney disease or hypertension, although obviously severe hypertensives might want to lay totally off the caffeine, if possible. It also stresses the kidneys to some degree, whether you're healthy or not. In healthy people, it means an additional "number one run" or so.

Again, I say, at the risk of becoming a broken record--75,000 Americans waiting on an organ. Sign those cards! You can save TWO people with kidney disease if you donate.

And, let's face it, where you're going when you die, you won't be needing those kidneys anyway.

Posted by Wolf | March 8, 2008 6:20 PM
17

@14- Thanks for the additional info. Clearly, my first link was not worthy. However, the second one, while containing a disclaimer in the main body, does conclude: "the Polycystic Kidney Foundation has recommended that patients with PKD reduce or eliminate the use of these substances [coffee, tea, and carbonated beverages]. The evidence presented in the current study supports that recommendation."

Based on your other comments, apparently there isn't a consensus. Figures.

I will add that the 2-3 cups maximum per day recommended by the PKD Foundation (who, incidentally, provided a grant for the study I cite above) is the caffeine equivalent to one 8oz cup of Starbucks drip coffee (~250mg of caffeine). If the woman in the article likes her coffee in the "Venti" size, then she's getting 2.5x that amount.

Posted by Mahtli69 | March 8, 2008 9:56 PM
18

@15 - Wolf, I appreciate your comments. You are obviously well-educated and understandably passionate about this subject.

I also didn't mean to imply that caffeine caused her disease. The article makes it clear that she has a genetic condition and has known about it for the last 20 years. Only recently has her condition worsened.

I do have a question about donor "cards". In Washington state, the way it works (or, at least, the way I think it works) is we can choose to be a donor when we get a driver's license. My license has a picture of a little heart next to my birthday, which indicates that I'm a donor. So, there's no donor card, per se, and I think my organs are good to go. Is this correct?

Posted by Mahtli69 | March 8, 2008 10:06 PM
19

You are correct--however, double check the laws in your state because in some statessurviving family can override your stated wishes and refuse to let you donate on death.

Outrageous? Uh, yeah.

The donor card is just a general, non-binding wallet card that says "I wish to make the following anatomical donation(s) upon my death" and has spaces for signatures and witnesses to sign. It's not a guarantee, but it can spark conversation about it if you're brain-dead and someone looks in your wallet.

I'm all for doing *anything* that gets the ball rolling here.

Posted by Wolf | March 9, 2008 8:24 AM
20

Typical Stranger-come-lately blog: old news, was in local papers weeks ago.

Posted by G. Conner | March 9, 2008 5:02 PM
21

So.

Old new or not.

Is your donor card signed?

Posted by Wolf | March 9, 2008 8:43 PM

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