At-home dialysis gives kidney patients freedom

At-home dialysis gives kidney patients freedom

By Deborah Austin
HealthyRockford.com
Posted Jul 02, 2008 @ 10:12 AM

ROCKFORD —

At-home hemodialysis freed Ronald and Murna Lindsey to live the way they wanted.

Ronald, 64, lived with chronic kidney disease for 30 years before starting traditional in-center dialysis last July at the DaVita dialysis center, 622 Roxbury Road. Murna drove him to the center from their far south Rockford home for the four-hour treatments three days a week.

When the Lindseys learned DaVita offered a daily at-home dialysis option, they decided to go for it.

The couple went through several weeks of training and, under the supervision of a DaVita nurse, Ronald had his first at-home hemodialysis sessions last November.

Once he got over his initial fear of needles, “there was nothing to it,” Ronald said. “I could do dialysis in the morning or evening, whenever I wanted. I had more energy and my appetite picked up like you wouldn’t believe.”

“We had the freedom to go out to dinner or, if we wanted to travel, we could put it in the car and take it with us,” Murna said.

Ronald received a kidney transplant this June and no longer needs dialysis. He still remembers how at-home dialysis made possible by the 70-pound portable machine changed his life.

“It was like day and night,” he said.

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