Living with dialysis: Kidney disease has increased over last 20 years

August 24, 2009

Living with dialysis: Kidney disease has increased over last 20 years

By TRACIE SIMER
tsimer@jacksonsun.com

Most of the time, Erbin Miller just sleeps during his four-hour dialysis. Sometimes he brings something to read or chats with the nurses. But every time he gets home, the rest of his day is gone.

"I'm not able to work, I tried a couple of times to get a job, but it's hard to work," he said. "So I have to collect disability to help pay the bills."

Miller, 52, has come to DaVita Dialysis three times a week for nine years for dialysis treatment, a process that cleans his blood. His surviving kidney is too weak to clean all the toxins in the bloodstream, so Miller must have a machine's help in order to live.

He is one of the more than 485,000 Americans who are being treated for kidney failure, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

The foundation also said prevalence for kidney disease has increased from one in every 10 adults to about one in every seven or eight.

The number of people in need of dialysis has grown over the last 20 years, but there are signs of the population leveling off, said Leslie Spry, a physician and spokesman for the National Kidney Foundation.

"In the past 20 years, the population increase was about 8-10 percent a year," he said. "Now, it's closer to 2-3 percent per year."

Two factors contribute to the increase: the number of new cases of kidney disease and the total number of people who need dialysis, Spry said. In the past two decades, an explosion in the diabetic and aging population have contributed to fuller dialysis centers, he said.

"If we can get a better control of diabetes, we could prevent complications, which include kidney disease," he said. "There is also very poor control of high blood pressure. Only a third of people who have high blood pressure have it controlled."

Miller lost one kidney to disease and the other is weak from two heart attacks and now kidney failure, Miller said.

"It's not a pretty sight," he said. "When I was told I needed dialysis, I thought my world was coming to an end. I had no clue about dialysis."

He said he's been on the organ transplant list for nine years, but isn't optimistic about receiving good news.

"I talked to a lady who's been on the list for 25 years," he said. "Me at my age, the chance of getting a kidney is small. I'm going to have to do this for the rest of my life. I can't live without it."

Spry said some measures can be taken to lower diabetic blood sugar levels and blood pressure, thus lowering the rate of kidney disease.

"Increase your activity, get up," he said. "Even just walking, for 20 minutes five days a week helps. And maintain a healthy diet, low in salt."

As long as he continues to follow his doctor's instructions, Miller said he's sure he'll still be healthy. He said he eats like a diabetic - no fried foods and nothing high in sugar. He also never misses a dialysis appointment.

"You do what you go to do," he said. "I have to do it."

Each treatment makes him weak, so he takes the bus home and rests all afternoon. He has to make sure he eats before he sleeps, to get his blood sugar levels up, he said. On his off days, he's able to be more active, he said.

There is some freedom in where he can go, Miller said. He can't drive, but he takes the bus all over the city. He can travel anywhere in the world, as long as that place has a dialysis center.

After several years of treatment, Miller said he's seen a lot of people come into the same center who looked and felt worse than he did.

His advice to those who recently learned they will need dialysis is to know the hardest part is the adjustment.

"But just know that if you do what the doctor says, you can live a productive life," he said. "I feel blessed by God."

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- Tracie Simer, 425-9629

http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20090824/LIFESTYLE/908240301