Home dialysis offers kidney patients a new life

Home dialysis offers kidney patients a new life

By Semhar Debessai, Staff Writer
March 19, 2007

In her 25 years, Jenny Huey has spent more time in and out of hospitals than most people twice her age.

Born with nephrotic syndrome - the first stages of a slow, disabling process that renders kidneys unable to filter out waste - Huey has endured stomach infections, multiple surgeries, even a debilitating stroke.

After not one but two failed kidney transplants, Huey's life became dependent on in-center dialysis treatments three times per week.

"It was awful ... my body reacted so poorly, (and) there was never a good session," Huey recalled of her visits to the dialysis center.

Administered to the majority of U.S. patients with acute kidney problems, this form of conventional dialysis is an intensive but effective procedure that mixes purified water with electrolytes and runs the solution through a patient's kidney and then down a drain.

At present, the treatment is delivered almost exclusively by professionals at specialized dialysis centers.

Luckily for Huey, that model is slowly changing. One reason is a new portable dialysis machine from Massachusetts-based NxStage Medical.

The machine, which plugs into standard electrical outlets and requires no special infrastructure to operate, is giving new hope to patients in search of an alternative.

For Huey, hope arrived at a critical time. Last summer, a stroke resulting from failed peritoneal dialysis treatments (a gentler, catheter-based method of blood maintenance) led to an accumulation of fluid in her body and left her in a coma for almost three weeks.

In October, a doctor suggested she try the at-home treatment.

I was like, 'Great, hemo(dialysis) again,"' Huey said with mock enthusiasm. "I was reluctant to do it."

Nevertheless, with some encouragement and a little bit of curiosity, Huey and her mother, Isabel, began two weeks of training to ensure proper use of the NxStage Machine.

The results were promising. "Within two days of the training, I could feel the difference," Huey said. It was also the first time in a long time that she had uttered these words: "I feel good."

The home treatment uses a machine approximately the size of a 13-inch television and requires three hours of daily use (and monthly doctor visits), as opposed to the three-times-a-week, in-center treatments.

Though more frequent, the treatment is time well-spent, Huey said.

"I'm at home with my family, so I have less nerves," she said.

Several months into the treatment, Huey is reclaiming her lost time with newfound energy to do the simple activities that bring her joy. "I don't feel completely helpless (anymore) ... I go out to lunch and dinner, to the beach," she said, adding: "It's the second best thing to having a working kidney. ... I feel like I'm back to me."

Sue Vogel, an administrator at the South Valley Regional Dialysis Center, is excited about the benefits of home treatment, in part because it leaves more resources for other patients who are without a live-in caregiver or are unable to take care of themselves.

Home hemodialysis patients range in age from 25 to 82. Just about the only qualification is "a willingness to learn," Vogel said. From her post at the Encino-based center, the only Southern California facility dealing with the NxStage home-treated dialysis patients, Vogel is optimistic.

"It can get kind of depressing," she said of her 13 years in the unit. "It gives us a good feeling to see people using (the NxStage machine) and excited about them."

Semhar Debessai, (818) 713-3665

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