I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: okarol on August 11, 2010, 06:28:14 PM
-
Texan hits the road in support of in-home dialysis
Written by JORDAN WOMPIERSKI
Tuesday, 10 August 2010 15:55
LINWOOD – Those who glanced at the Cornerstone Commerce Center as they passed by on Friday might have doubled back for a second look when they noticed Harvey Wells’ behemoth RV sitting in the parking lot in front of Liberty Dialysis.
While Wells’ motor home definitely drew some attention, it was an even more impressive piece of technology inside the camper that brought Wells to Linwood.
“This is my kidney,” the 58-year-old Texas resident said as he pointed toward his NxStage portable in-home hemodialysis machine, the size of a 13-inch television.
Wells has end-stage renal disease, the fifth and final stage of chronic kidney disease. In 1998 he had a kidney transplant courtesy of his wife, but after eight years the kidney failed, relegating Wells to a lifetime of dialysis. Now, he needs a machine to do what his kidney can’t, which is remove toxins and excess fluids from the body.
Wells said when his wife’s kidney failed, he used to head to a dialysis center three times a week for about four hours each visit. While the dialysis was doing its job, it left Wells feeling drained.
“I noticed that I lacked energy,” he said. “It seemed like I was on a constant cycle and every time I’d just start feeling good I’d have to go back in the center to have my toxins removed.”
After about a year and a half, Wells started using the portable machine.
“The difference was 180 degrees,” he said. “By my fourth day on this machine, I just felt so much better. I looked at my wife and said, ‘This is going to be so much better’.”
Wells uses the machine six days a week for three to four hours each time. He said he originally looked into the in-home treatment simply for the convenience and the effect it had on his health was simply a bonus.
“The benefit of this machine is it helps you live your life in a fairly normal fashion,” he said. “I wanted the flexibility and freedom of this machine, but the real benefit I got out of it is how I feel health-wise.”
Wells said receiving daily dialysis treatment at centers like Liberty Dialysis would also be ideal, but it isn’t practical for him.
“If the centers had the capacity to treat people more frequently, they would have the same benefit of doing it at home,” he said, “but the problem is, dialysis centers typically are jammed full of patients and they don’t have the capacity to treat patients as frequently as you can with this.”
Wells said the reason he feels so much better is because he receives more frequent treatments from his own machine.
“The studies show that people who do more frequent dialysis are healthier, they’re living longer, and it’s a better therapeutic option than receiving the treatment three days a week in-center,” he said.
So impressed with the results of the in-home treatment, Wells has spent the past four summers traveling the country, often times with his wife and grandchildren, to spread the word to those who may not be aware such a machine is available.
“My goal is to show this people therapy is available and to demonstrate it’s a more simplistic process than what you see in-center,” Wells said. “It’s easy to do at home. When I say easy, I mean it becomes very routine because you do it daily. I tell people it’s like learning how to drive a car or learning how to do your job. Because you do it daily, it becomes routine.”
Wells said he has traveled more than 50,000 miles in all since he started touring the country in 2007, visiting roughly 40 states and over 100 dialysis centers. He said he enjoys talking to other dialysis patients.
“It’s therapeutic for me, too, because I feel like I’m sharing my story and letting them know this is a viable option and it helps you,” he said. “If I just talk to one person and can change their life as dramatically as this, it will be worth all the gas I’ve spent.”
Learn more at www.NxStage.com.
http://www.shorenewstoday.com/index.php/mainland-/somers-point-linwood-northfield-business/3191-texan-hits-the-road-in-support-of-in-home-dialysis.html#disqus_thread
PHOTO:
[ Harvey Wells showed the convenience of his in-home dialysis machine on Friday when he was surfing the web while receiving treatment in his RV. Here he is with Christine Daisey, a home program nurse for Liberty Dialysis. Photo by Jordan Wompierski] Harvey Wells showed the convenience of his in-home dialysis machine on Friday when he was surfing the web while receiving treatment in his RV. Here he is with Christine Daisey, a home program nurse for Liberty Dialysis. Photo by Jordan Wompierski