The Honolulu Advertiser from Honolulu, Hawaii • 18

mm Island Life TV.C8 Coffee Break, C2 Ann Landers: A registry for Alzheimer's patients C7 The Honolulu Advertiser Island Life Editor Wanda Adams, 525-8034 Wednesday, April 12, 1995 Sj, f. .4 i i 'M j. Heed these warning signs Early warning signs that may indicate kidney disease: Needing to urinate more often, especially at night. Burning or discomfort when urinating. Cloudy, bloody, or foul-smelling urine.

Pain in the small of the back, just below the ribs. Swelling of hands and feet, puffiness around the eyes. High blood 4 Retired firefighter Martin Hee patiently waits through dialysis at St. Francis Medical Center's Renal Institute; he's one of hundreds who need kidney dialysis in Hawaii where kidney disease rates lead the nation. Advertiser photo by Carl Vttl 'ft By Wade Shirkey Time is of the essence The other night, I glued yet another news article about my father in his scrapbook.

This would be the last one. Proudly, each article about his promotions, speeches, published works including the news photo of his arrival in Hawaii or the one speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate, to front page stories and an editorial when he resigned his Hawaii job and moved away were dutifully put in place. That night, I would add one more his obituary. It had been an agonizingly slow, slow end to a very busy life, in which he always seemed to have so little time.

Growing up, during his weekend custodial visits, he would hand me off to my grandparents he needed to get his medical practice off the ground. And, there was so little time. Yet, on one of those weekends, when flying was still novel and not cheap, he flew me to and from a nearby city just to show me what it was like. Every little bit helps Growing up, Dad had so little time to help me with my homework there were speeches of his own to write. And, so little time.

But, the summer my mom died, he sat me down each of those long, hot Alabama summer nights, and read me the entire "The -Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn" one chapter at a time. When I graduated from high school, he doubted if he'd be able to make the ceremony by now there was a hospital to run. God, there never seemed to be enough time. Yet, the summer before, he took his scruffy blond-haired rebellious teen-ager for a "father-and-son" canoe camping trip Into the Canadian backwoods. When Hawaii Kai was in its infancy, and Henry J.

Kaiser's pink bulldozers pushed back farmland, I had my first Job at a service station at the head of the valley. My father's beaming face was never among the other proud parents who drove in to fill up. There simply was never time. Now there were medical school responsibilities as well. But, he had bought me the black VW "bug" that got me there and back each And, his leis weren't among the ones around my neck the hot August day I marched with other UH graduates through Andrew's Outdoor Amphitheatre he had left the very university that now set me on my life's journey, to head up another school's medical department eons away.

Besides, there probably wasn't time, anyway. The hard route Throughout the years, he would always remind me how his hard work, and hours traveling, speaking, writing, working would afford me a life of knowledge, life experience and character that the "fun times" wouldn't. He was right. I learned at the knee of a man of science, a man of intelligence, of compassion, of dignity, with that impish smile and kolohe quick wit. And, one who took another's tragedy and sadness and made it his own.

One night not too many years ago, he lay on the floor of his bathroom in the initial throes of a stroke, while his bride of two months fetched paper and pencil so he could complete his will before he would allow the ambulance to be summoned. Even in death his final gesture was of giving: there will be no final resting place for this great man he has given his body to the science of medicine that for so many years also took so much of his time, I was proud of my father. I loved him. I'd love to tell him again. But, you see, there's no longer any time.

Hawaii's kidney disease rate is the nation's highest, bringing a big demand on the blood-cleaning machines By Beverly Creamer Ad vertiser Staff Writer The sun's not up yet when Martin Hee pulls up at St. Francis Medical Center, parks his car, and heads out to run the hilly streets of Liliha. Half an hour later, still in jogging shoes and sweats, the 54-year-old retired firefighter settles into a chair in the Renal Institute, and spends the next two and a half hours having his blood cleaned by dialysis. "After being an outdoors person, it was a traumatic experience for me being here," he admits of going on dialysis a year ago. "As a firefighter I used to work out every day." Hee is one of 750 patients who receive dialysis through the St.

Francis Medical Center's Renal Institute, pushing the system to the maximum as that facility and others in Hawaii struggle to keep pace with new demands for dialysis. In 1993 1,024 people in Hawaii needed dialysis. Last year the growth rate for dialysis jumped from 9 to 15 percent an unprecedented and troubling increase, says Dr. Jared Sugihara, medical director of the St. Francis Renal Institute, largest in the state, with Neighbor Island and rural Oahu satellite centers.

In 1993, the national average of new cases of kidney failure was 250 per million people; in Hawaii it was 328 per million. "For every day in Hawaii another person is diagnosed with kidney failure and has to go on dialysis to stay alive," says National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii executive director Gill Dechario. Hawaii has the nation's highest rate of kidney disease fully 30 percent above Mainland rates and high levels of diabetes in the native Hawaiian, Japanese and Filipino populations. Diabetes, in fact, causes half of Hawaii's kidney failures, compared to 33 percent nationally. "It's related to diet and a lack of willingness to seek medical attention," says Sugihara.

"People in lower socio-economic groups may not necessarily seek medical attention unless they're really ill. And a lot of our patients live in Waianae." Dr. Terry Shintani who uses diet to help diabetic patients of Hawaiian ancestry believes the rising demand for dialysis is also linked to lupus rates. Lupus, an auto-immune disease which often affects the kidneys, disproportionately affects those of Asian ancestry. But while Hawaii has an increasing need for dialysis, there's a diminishing financial return for providers, says Sugihara.

The trend worries him. "Reimbursement for dialysis has not increased in probably 10 years," he says. "They're asking you to do the same thing for less money. It's becoming more and more difficult to provide care and not lose money in the process." Across the country, dialysis charges vary from See Dialysis, Page C8 Ticture Bride' finally comes home to Hawaii s' '5 KHNL'snew newscast is ready to roll "KHNL Hawaii News 8," the island's latest entry into the TV news war, will be launched at 9:05 p.m. Monday on KHNL Channel 13.

The half-hour newscast will begin at 9:05 p.m. daily, with KHNL's sister station, KFVE Channel 5, simulcasting weekdays. In the premiere week, however, the simulcast will occur only on Monday and Thursday. The station is calling itself KHNL Hawaii News 8 because that's the channel See KHNL, Page C7 KHNL sportscasters eager for their debut. See Sports, Page E1.

Premiere of Isle-based film is a fund-raiser They've seen it in France. They've seen it in Utah. Now finally! we'll see it in Hawaii: "Picture Bride," the award-winning feature shot on Oahu and featuring Tamlyn Tomita, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, a cameo role by Japanese legend Toshiro Mifune, and seemingly half the population of the island as extras. The movie's premiere will be a gala fund-raiser for the Japanese Women's Society and Hawaii Community Television April 23 at Waikiki 3 Theatre (see info box). "Picture Bride" opens in general release in Hawaii and New York April 28, in San Francisco and Los Angeles May 5 and elsewhere in the country after that, according to co-producer Diane Mei Lin Mark.

It tells the story of Riyo, played by WHAT: "Picture Bride," the Hawaii premiere. WHENWHERE: 1p.m. April 23, Waikiki III Theatre. TICKETS: $25 includes screening and brief and A session at the theater, and a reception following at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii. Seats are limited.

Call 943-6993, the Japanese Women's Society of Honolulu. ALSO: Opening in general theatrical release here April 28. Japanese pop star Youki Kudoh, who journeys to Hawaii in 1918 to marry a plantation worker (Akira Takayama), who is known to her only from pictures. The Islands are not the paradise she expected but the friendship of a fellow caneworker (Tomita) helps Riyo get through. A moving premise but will middle America "get" it? In answer, Mark recalls a talk she See Bride, Page C3 Wade C.

Shirkey followed from city to city as his father, Dr. Harry C. Shirkey, headed hospitals and medical schools in Cincinnati, Ohio, Birmingham, Honolulu, and New Orleans. Wade is a 25-year veteran of The Honolulu Advertiser and faints at the thought of going to a doctor. Youki Kudoh is Riyo, the title character in the acclaimed film "Picture Gingerly do we tell the tale of a certain Nuuanu jack EtLFs Adam Eve have belly buttons?" After That, There Just Wasn't Enough Dough In It For Him.

From our Idiotic But True Stuff Elvis Presley made one TV commercial in his whole life in 1954, for Southern Made Doughnuts. And always remember the words of Groucho Marx: "Either this man is dead or my watch is stopped." Will Hoover accepted these." How 'Bout A Stint As The Maytag Repairman? Brian Bott of Waikiki wonders about the best career track for a future politicians. Here are a couple of his own suggestions: "Working their way though law school as a used car salesman; employment as an IRS auditor." He'd like to hear suggestions from other readers. And If They DID Have Belly Buttons, Were They Innies Or Outies? Lucy Chabot and John Schweig of Hanalei, Kauai, have two Incredible body part questions: "Why do men have nipples?" And "Did Once Again Pineapple Stew Gets To The Bottom Of A Jackass Question! In answer to Shirley Hasenyager's question about the origin of the oddly named Nuuanu stream and pool, Merle Stetser of McCully says according to the book "Place Names of Hawaii," 'Jackass Ginger' was renamed in the early 1900s by local youth for a donkey that was tethered nearby and for the yellow ginger growing by the pooL" Dick Says Hell Accept Reactions From Knee Jerks On This. Writes Dick Myers of Kaneohe, "Knowing the intelligence that your readers must possess, I am hopeful that one of them may be able to answer a question that long has escaped me: What would chairs look like if our knees bent the other way?" Hey, It Works Out If Vou Use The "New Math." Frances from Alewa Heights says she and her mom recently went shopping at a department store in Illinois, only to have the clerk refuse their travelers checks because "you're from a foreign Send us your quips, comments and anecdotes.

Write "Pineapple Stew," P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, Hi. 96802; call (808) 525S038; fax (808) 525-8055; via CompuServe, 76322.2G24. country." When the women assured the clerk that Hawaii had been a state since 1959, he did some quick mental arithmetic and declared, "OK but 10 years ago, we wouldn't have.