Dialysis patient serves as testament to endurance after 35 years of treatment

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Dialysis patient serves as testament to endurance after 35 years of treatment

By The Grand Rapids Press
September 22, 2009, 6:04AM

ZEELAND -- Lori Van Antwerp considers her 35 years on kidney dialysis a bittersweet milestone.

On one the hand, the procedure that purifies the Zeeland resident’s blood has kept her body and plain-spoken candor alive and kicking.

On the other, the shooting pain Van Antwerp endures again and again when a 16-gauge needle jabs through a graft on her right thigh, so she can undergo dialysis, tests her threshold of endurance.

Van Antwerp has beaten the odds, said Maurie Ferriter, director of programs and services for the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan.

Of the 15,000 residents in Michigan who undergo the procedure, only five have been on dialysis 35 years or longer, he said.

“People weren’t meant to dialyze three decades-plus,” Ferriter said. “It’s hard on the body and cardiovascular system in particular. We’re not engineered or built to do it that long, which is why people like Lori are so amazing because she has endured this long and has maintained a fairly high quality of life for that amount of time.”

Some challenging days

Van Antwerp doesn’t sugarcoat the thrice-weekly dialysis that cleans her blood of waste products and extra fluids via a machine.

“Some days, I hate it, because of the fact that I have to sit in a chair for a helluva long day to dialyze,” said Van Antwerp, 52.

“But if you want to live, you don’t have a choice.”

The National Kidney Foundation of Michigan recently presented Van Antwerp, who has no kidneys, with her second Decade Club certificate. She received her first 15 years ago when she marked her 20th year dialyzing.

Her 35 years of dialysis likely has set a record in Michigan, said Ferriter. Most people in the state dialyze an average of eight to 10 years.

Van Antwerp also has devoted hours of volunteer time as a mentor to those starting dialysis and as a support group leader.

“Dialysis is hard on the body,” said Beth Bowers, regional director for the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan. “It’s taking toxins out of your system so it recycles your blood and that’s traumatic on your body and hard on your heart and arteries.”

Longtime friend Deb Schollaart said Van Antwerp has survived and thrived amid some difficult circumstances.

She lives with painful arthritis and paper-thin skin that easily bleeds and has endured multiple surgeries — 170 so far, said Schollaart, of Lowell.

“We’re talking about operations to remove scar tissue from previous operations,” said Schollaart, who has known Van Antwerp for 37 years.

Despite her limitations, Van Antwerp’s spirits remain high amid her share of valleys, Schollaart said.

Van Antwerp’s dream is to travel on a cruise, but insurance will not pay for a nurse or portable dialyzer, Schollaart said.

“She understands God has a purpose for her.”

The early days

Van Antwerp was 15 when she started dialysis in May 1972. A birth defect called vesicoureteral reflux forced a backward flow of urine from the bladder into Van Antwerp’s kidneys, eventually rendering them useless.

Two kidney transplants she received as a teen failed.

She tried at-home dialysis for two years while in college but a medical snafu and the inability to find a trained partner to help her dialyze at home forced her to have her blood purified at Renal Advantage Inc., in Zeeland.

It took her 14 years to earn her associates degree at Grand Rapids Community College, but she figures the 14 years she worked as a registered nurse were worth the effort. Van Antwerp retired last year.

“I always said I don’t live to dialyze, I dialyze to live,” she said. “The more educated you are, the easier it is to understand what the process is all about.”

BY THE NUMBERS

How chronic kidney disease affects Americans:

    * 26 million American adults age 20 or older have chronic kidney disease.
    * More than 900,000 Michigan adults age 20 or older have chronic kidney disease.
    * African-Americans in Michigan make up only 14 percent of the general population yet make up 45 percent of the those on dialysis and 46 percent of the kidney transplant waiting list.
    * Type 2 diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure. One in three children born in 2000 will develop diabetes.

SOURCE: The National Kidney Foundation of Michigan

E-mail: yourlife@grpress.com

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