The Billings Gazette du lieu suivant : Billings, Montana • 10

4B Monday, June 27, 1994 WYOMINGMONTANA The Billings Gazette Help ffoir Iddmiey patients 'Family' atmosphere eases hardship of dialysis a roll i'4 KALISPELL (AP) Geri Crose likes to show off her photo album that shows people smooching Santa, displaying fancy birthday cakes, greeting gorillas bearing handfuls of balloons, and hamming it up in Halloween costumes. It's a lot like any other family album, except this "family" is made up of the regulars at Glacier Regional Dialysis Center in Kalispell. Crose, a registered nurse, is the program coordinator. It's a place where Whitefish teacher Jane Shryock, 44, comes three times a week, kicks off her sneakers, relaxes in a recliner and reads a book. It's where Ray Deist teases his wife, Nina, 77, banters with nurses, and sometimes brings baked goods to pass around.

The comfortable, homey atmosphere is almost enough to make visitors forget that this is life support. In its five-year history, the center has made it possible for 89 people to enjoy life to its fullest outside of the 9-14 hours a week they spend hooked up to dialysis machines. An active life "I spend 12 hours a week here, fit in a full-time job and an active life," says Shryock. "I'm perfectly healthy; I'm just minus two major organs." Shryock felt fine and said she was "totally surprised" when a blood panel screening during a regular physical examination revealed that her kidneys were failing. Kidneys perform the body's blood-cleansing' duties, removing fluid and waste products, and also serve other functions, such as controlling blood pressure.

They are instrumental some hormone production, help to maintain normal blood cell production, and play an integral part in maintaining the balance of calcium in the bones. When they fail, dialysis can take over some of their work, cleansing the blood of waste products and excess 7 In a typical three-hour session, a dialysis machine shunts a big proportion of the body's blood through a filter and returns it to the body. Shryock had three years to come to grips with the fact that she would either be dependent on a dialysis machine for the rest or her life, or trade one medical condition for another by getting a kidney transplant and accepting a lifetime of immunosuppressant drugs. Social worker deals with fears It's social worker Lon Eliason's job to help patients deal with such fears, to help them make travel arrangements to get to the center, make living accommodations, and all the adjustments of their new life. "When they realize that they'll be here three times a week for the rest of their lives, they can become depressed," he said.

"If they were allowed to stay in that mind-set, it would be overwhelming." That's when the family atmosphere can become extremely important to patients. Shyrock was absorbed into the extended family of the center, a community where people chat with those in the re-cliners beside them and with family members who accompany them and work as volunteers. They talk about their children, bring photographs and share movies, much as any social group does. "I've lost some of my best friends to transplants," says Nina Deist, who misses companions who sat beside her for many years but rejoices in the transplants that gave them freedom from dialysis. Like many of the patients, she participated in a white-elephant sale to raise funds to purchase the beepers that people wear when they are on the organ waiting list.

And some of the funds help with transportation to transplant centers and provide housing there. Deist is among the patients who, for reasons of age and other health issues, won't be considered for a transplant; Shryock is among six who are ready and waiting for organ donations. Six more patients are almost ready to be added to the list. So far, no donated kidneys have matched enough of the half-dozen elements involved for Shryock to get a transplant, but just since April, five other patients have received theirs. While she waits, she reports regularly for dialysis.

"It's an inconvenience," she said. "But when I look at the alternative, it's not that bad. It's clean and bright, and I get a chance to read again." Only a few years ago, kidney failure was a death sentence, she said. Although many people can get home dialysis, the technical ability and commitment required, as well as recent changes in laws affecting professional attendants, have brought many home dialysis patients back to centers. Some patients quit Still, some patients decide that they cannot cope with their restricted life, or with an added health complication, and quit.

All the patients know of someone who has decided to quit and, inevitably, to die within days. That's one reason most have become active members of the community of patients. It is an unofficial support group, a network, an extended family of people who care. It's an association that helps them as much as Eliason's professional ministrations, almost as important as the dialysis itself. "This is all that's keeping me alive," she says, indicating the dialysis machine she uses for three-hour periods, four times a week.

But she also means her husband, her daughters and the unusual community that she's become part of. "Here, it's a family," she says. r1 Gazette photo by James Woodcock Eleven-year-old Erika Meissner gave herself and her dog Bandit a good workout lately while skating down Poly Drive. Western art show on tap in Cody next weekend Tie Billings Gazette Still the best in Montana CODY, Wyo. The Third Annual Northern Plains Western Art Show will be held July 3 and 4 at Old Trail Town in Cody from 8 a.m.

to 8 p.m. both days. "The works of 19 noted Western artists will be featured in this multimedia showing of Western, historical and wildlife art," said event organizer Jan Wheeler. Returning artists include Harry Jackson, Reid Christie, George Dabich, Dave Bermingham, Linda Berwick, L.D. Edgar, T.J.

Feeley, Mel Gerhold, Harold Hopkinson, Jerry Antolik, Deanna Matteson, Elizabeth R. Ruhl, Gary Shoop, George D. Smith, Mike Thomas, Eugene Calhoun and Nancy Jelli-co. Dave Lemom of Ennis, new to this year's show, will also exhibit. According to Wheeler, "Bob Edgar's historic Old Trail Town was chosen as an ideal location for the show.

Since 1992, show attendees have enjoyed the rustic setting of Old Trail Town's wagon barn, surrounded by a collection of horse-drawn vehicles, and frontier buildings housing memorabilia of the Wyoming frontier." Established in 1965, Old Trail Town features the largest collection of its kind in Wyoming. Some of its relocated buildings include Butch Cas-sidy's "Hole-in-the-Wall" cabin and that of Curly, Lt. Col. G.A. Custer's Indian scout from the Battle of Little Bighorn.

The Old Trail Town cemetery is the final resting place of Jeremiah Johnson, the famed scout, hunter and trapper of early frontier days. For additional information on the Northern Plains Western Art Show and Sale, contact Jan Wheeler at (307) 587-3336. V. I i i i Tanks to be regulated CHEYENNE. Wvo.

Under the program, the owners or operators of the tanks must pay a registration fee of $200 per tank by July 1. Registration will make the owners or operators eligible for state help in cleaning up contamination created by leaks in tanks. The cleanup program is financed by a 1 percent tax on gasoline and special fuels, which raises from $6.5 million to $7 million a year. The cleanup program was first set up for leaking underground storage tanks. The registration requirement will not apply to tanks that do not contain petroleum or diesel fuel, Hackett said, or to above-ground fuel tanks used on a ranch, by construction companies or by bulk dealers.

State officials will begin regulating above-ground fuel storage tanks on July 1 as part of a change in state law adopted by the Legislature earlier this year. The Legislature has added tanks above ground to its law requiring the regulation of underground storage tanks. Mike Hackett, manager for the state Department of Environmental Quality's storage tank program, said state officials are unsure just how many above-ground storage tanks exist in the state. The regulation program will help solve that problem, he added. "One of the things we're doing is getting the information out that they need to be registered so we can get a handle on it," he said.

Sullivan won't support abortion ban The Montana Newspaper Association recently presented The Billings Gazette with the prestigious Sam Gilluly Sweepstakes Award for earning the most honors in its Better Newspaper Contest. The Gazette took home eight first-place awards and 23 other awards in the contest more than any other newspaper in Montana. While awards are gratifying, they are only the end result of our real goal -providing our readers with the best news coverage and advertising service in the state. The Billings Gazette tutional. Sullivan, a U.S.

Senate candidate, said he does agree with the intent of the measure, called the "Human Life Protection Initiative." "I certainly endorse the pro-life side of it," he said. "I have concerns whether it goes too far, whether the punitive nature of the penalties are excessive." Under the measure, physicians who do abortions in violation of the law to be created would face a prison sentence of up to 14 years. CASPER, Wyo. (AP) Gov. Mike Sullivan will not endorse a ballot initiative that would ban most abortions in the state, he said.

The Democrat, speaking to the Wyoming Health Reform Commission, said he doubts he will address the initiative even though he has publicly taken a pro-life stance. The measure, if approved by voters, would ban abortions except in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother. The Wyoming Supreme Court has been asked to keep the measure off of the ballot by pro-choice groups that maintain it is unconsti ANNUALM IndoorOutdoor Garage Greenhouse Mon June 27 Sat, Full Time Custom Installation Perscnnsl Free Consultation Estimates 2201 Grand Ave. 652-3131 To subscribe to the Gazette, call 657-1298 or (800) 762-6397.