Family man gets his life back by receiving kidney treatment while he sleeps

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Family man gets his life back by receiving kidney treatment while he sleeps

WHEN Ian Hazel wakes up in the morning not only is he refreshed from eight hours’ sleep, he’s also in tip-top health having received a high dose of lifesaving kidney dialysis overnight.

By: Kate BohdanowiczPublished: Tue, December 3, 2013
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Ian and his wife Emma with the dialysis machine Ian and his wife Emma with the dialysis machine [PETER CORNS]

After more than a decade’s worth of drug therapy, dialysis both at hospital and home and a failed kidney transplant, Ian, 41, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, receives his treatment effortlessly and painlessly while he dreams.

“I’ve not looked back since starting nocturnal dialysis,” says the IT specialist who works at the Royal Chesterfield Hospital. “I feel better than ever.

“My blood pressure has dropped to normal and I have stopped almost all my medication. I’ve also got my days back so I can work and spend time with my wife Emma and six-year-old son Laurence.”

Only a minority of the three to four per cent of home-dialysis patients receive treatment overnight. Renal specialist Dr Richard Fluck from Royal Derby Hospital would like to see this number increase although he concedes it’s not for everyone.

“Some patients don’t feel capable of dialysing at home or they don’t want the intrusion,” he says. “Also some people are not well enough to undertake this degree of self-care.”

High-dose nocturnal dialysis has multiple benefits.

Dr Fluck says: “There is increasing evidence that it improves longevity as well as quality of life.”

I’ve also got my days back so I can work and spend time with my wife Emma and six-year-old son Laurence
Ian Hazel
A recent study presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress found that receiving high-dose dialysis at home over long periods (up to 72 hours a week instead of the nine to 12 hours a patient would receive in hospital) decreased the risk of heart damage which is a side effect of kidney disease.

Dr Chris Overgaard from Toronto General Hospital reported: “Longer dialysis done while patients are sleeping may improve the health of arteries and could lower the risk of developing heart disease.”

The high frequency and duration means toxins are more evenly and gently removed from the blood.

Ian had no idea he had kidney damage until undergoing a job-related health check in 1999.

He was 27 and had put the tell-tale signs of fatigue and tiredness down to “working hard and playing hard”.

The cause was an undetected autoimmune disease called MPGN.

It was managed with drugs until 2003 when a decline in his kidney function meant a transplant or dialysis were the only options. There are two major types of dialysis: peritoneal, in which dialysate fluid is entered into the abdomen, and haemodialysis, during which an artificial kidney is used to remove waste, chemicals and fluid from the blood.

Ian Hazel, kidney, transplant, drug, therapy, family, IT specialist, machine, sleep, recovery,Ian's nocturnal dialysis has given him family life back with his wife Emma and son Lawrence [PETER CORNS]

Ian opted for the first and was trained to dialyse himself at home.

Four years later, a transplant became available from his mother Denise, 60.

It didn’t go well. First there were problems with the extraction then it had to be transplanted twice and by December it had failed completely. Ian went back on peritoneal dialysis but with both Emma and Ian in full-time work, the treatment was disrupting family life.

The process uses a lot of water and every time a toilet flushed or a bath was run it interrupted the treatment.

“Home dialysis isn’t really suited to family life,” says Ian. We were struggling.”

He was poised to return to hospital treatment when he was approached about a trial of nocturnal dialysis.

Ian is attached to the machine at night and detaches himself in the morning.

On the odd occasion it hasn’t worked (there have been a couple of machine failures and once Ian had to detach himself to cope with a stomach bug) it doesn’t matter because the following night he knows he’ll get another eight hours.

Its effect is overwhelming. “I work, I’m active. I go on holiday,” he says. “It has given me my life back.”

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/446495/Family-man-gets-his-life-back-by-receiving-kidney-treatment-while-he-sleeps