Busy life, despite kidney disease

Busy life, despite kidney disease

Kamahl Cogdon

May 30, 2007 12:00am
Article from: Herald-Sun

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BEING hooked up to a dialysis machine for 4 1/2 hours three times a week is not most people's idea of a good time.

But it's a ritual kidney disease patient Kevin Green looks forward to.

It's often the first chance he's had all day to sit down.

Mr Green, 42, believes keeping busy and positive are great medicine for the kidney condition he was diagnosed with at 18.

The Macleod dad runs his own painting business five days a week, works in Collingwood pizzeria Santo Michele's two nights and every second weekend, enjoys a regular round of golf, helps at Auskick, spends precious time with eight-year-old daughter Kaila and occasionally volunteers at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

"You've got to stay active -- that's the main ingredient," Mr Green said.

"If you don't, the kidney disease and dialysis will just play on your mind and you won't want to do anything."

But Mr Green also knows he's lucky to have had been diagnosed early.

He was dining in a Lygon St restaurant when he suffered severe back pains and decided to get checked out immediately at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

A simple blood test confirmed glomerulonephritis, an inflammation of the filtering units of the kidneys affecting their ability to filter waste and excess water from the blood.

Mr Green was able to avoid dialysis for another 18 years because the condition was caught early when just 5 per cent of function had been lost, and because he led a healthy lifestyle.

But many people don't know they have kidney disease until they have lost 90 per cent of kidney function, with few or no warning signs to alert them.

They must start dialysis immediately and begin the wait for a donor organ.

Mr Green has been waiting for a donor kidney for seven years, with two brothers, a sister and his ex-wife ruled out as suitable donors.

While disappointed they were not a match, the tests were not a complete loss, revealing ex-wife Susie also had a kidney condition.

Mr Green will continue dialysis at the Royal Melbourne Hospital's Coburg centre.

He said he had developed a bond with the other 11 patients on his 3pm to 7.30pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday "shifts", including inspirational dialysis veteran and artist Wayne Larson, who had been having the lifesaving treatment for 35 years.

The number of Australians on dialysis is increasing 6 per cent each year, with an average six new patients being accepted on to the program every day.

It costs $72,000 a year to treat each of them.

While Mr Green did not fit the profile of a typical kidney disease patient, one in three Australians is thought to be at increased risk because they had diabetes, high blood pressure, smoked, were aged over 50, were obese, or of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.

"Early diagnosis is the key," Mr Green said.

"Once your kidneys are gone 90 per cent, there's no reversing.

"And the problem is you don't know that they're gone."

Net link: www.kidney.org.au

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