Triathlete inspires dialysis patients to live a full life

[okarol]

Triathlete inspires dialysis patients to live a full life

By LIZ FREEMAN

Sunday, June 29, 2008

They were two strangers sitting at a table discussing what is important to them and God.

Three decades apart in age was bridged by the emotional and physical challenge of kidney failure, with both men dependant on dialysis three times a week.

Shad Ireland, a 36-year-old Ironman triathlete from Minnesota, came to Naples Artificial Kidney Center recently to inspire other dialysis patients, like 67-year-old Tom Mancinelli, that leading a full life doesn’t have to come to an end because of dialysis.

“All our stories are important,” Ireland said, a spokesman for Fresenius Medical Care Inc., which owns the Naples center and 1,650 dialysis centers in the United States. He travels around the country and talks with dialysis patients about taking control of their lives. “We are learning from each other.”

Mancinelli of Naples, who has been on dialysis for 1 1⁄2 years, said staying positive is not always easy but he tries. His faith in God helps.

“You never give up. You have to fight to stay alive,” said Mancinelli, whose kidney failure is the result of radiation treatment 21 years ago for non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. “Life is not always that easy.”

Ireland, who grew up near Minneapolis, was diagnosed with kidney failure when he was 10 and he needed dialysis until he could have a liver transplant. He had a transplant at 18 but it failed and he went into a coma. His parents were told to prepare for his funeral. He came out of the coma, but he was full of anger that he was cheated in life. He was told he likely wouldn’t live past 25.

“I spent 13 months on my mother’s couch,” he said. “I was 75 pounds. It was the lowest point in my life. I was cursing God. Why did I have to go through this.”

One day he saw a program on television about Ironman triathletes and decided he was going to become one.

“It took 24 months to weigh 80 pounds,” he said. “I woke up on my 25th birthday and wondered why I was still here.”

He went to college and took his anger with him. A philosophy professor began to turn his life around, teaching him and other students how to have perspective in life. Soon afterward, he saw a man a wheelchair paralyzed from the neck down, who smiled at him in passing. That drove home to Ireland that his life wasn’t so bad.

“I realized at least I had dialysis to connect to. I had the chip off my shoulder,” he said.

He graduated from college and accepted a job as network engineer in the Minneapolis area. One night, drunk with friends, he decided to live up to his promise of becoming an Ironman triathlete.

“I was 90 pounds and had been on dialysis for 20 years,” he said. “My biceps were the size of a quarter.”

He told his skeptical doctor of his plans and started going to a gym. At first he could only walk two minutes on a treadmill but he stuck with it. Six months later, a trainer agreed to work with him.

In 2004, Ireland entered an Ironman triathlon event in Lake Placid, N.Y., and finished, becoming the first dialysis patient to complete a triathlon.

He had found his calling in life, to convince other dialysis patients that with planning they can travel, take part in sports and live a full life. They can take control of their lives by watching their diet, taking their medications, watching their laboratory results and exercise, now matter how little at first.

Exercise helps against the vicious cycle of feeling tired and developing cardiac conditions. His foundation, the Shad Ireland Foundation, helps dialysis patients fulfill their goals and incorporate fitness for healthy living.

“It’s functional exercise,” he said. “This disease tends to be overwhelming. There are things you can do to take back your life.”

Marilyn and Wiliam Caithness of Venice listened intently to Ireland, asking if he uses a portable dialysis machine for travel. Marilyn Caithness, 77, has been on dialysis since 2005. The couple likes to take cruises and they came to the Naples dialysis center because of Ireland’s visit.

Ireland does not use a portable dialysis machine; he has learned to plan his traveling around dialysis. Fresenius does have a “dialysis at sea” program, he said.

“The bottom line is you can travel,” Ireland said.

Mancinelli, the 67-year-old dialysis patient from Naples and New York, said Ireland’s story was interesting.

“And at an early age (to have kidney failure), that had got to be tough,” he said. “And here I was feeling sorry for myself.”

For more information about Shad Ireland and his foundation, go to his Web site, www.ironshad.com

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/jun/29/dialysis-patients-inspire-others-themselves/

[stauffenberg]

This theory that dialysis patients can do anything if they just take control of their lives is utter nonsense.  Viewed realistically, all life is a balance between objective factors you cannot change and subjective responses to those challenges which you can change.  There comes a point where the objective limiting forces in your life simply overcome your ability to take charge of things, and for most people, endstage renal failure represents just such a point.

Edgar Allen Poe had a story about how the will can so dominate the body that it can even compel the physical self to continue existing after death ("The Strange Case of Mr. Valdemar").  But that is fiction.

[Zach]

There comes a point where the objective limiting forces in your life simply overcome your ability to take charge of things, and for most people, endstage renal failure represents just such a point.

Endstage renal failure most certainly does not mean endstage of life, no matter how many times you say to the contrary.
 

[Meinuk]

Stauffenberg, you really need to remember, even though we all suffer from CKD, each case is individual.  Although we all may have similar complications along the way, our individual health is a combination of lifestyle, luck and genetics.

Me for example, I got off easy, I have PKD and my kidneys don't work.  Everything else is works just fine.  A few years down the line, I may develop some complications from my CKD, but I am in a good position to live my life in the most preventative lifestyle that I can.  Or, when I get my transplant I could have any number of complications.

My point is, a healthy life and CKD are possible, and there are more and more examples out there every day.  I don't want people to feel like they should be feeling better (and able to compete as tri athletes), I just don't want people to give up all hope.  It is the daily victories that will help us win the overall battle.  I feel like you are the harbinger of doom and gloom, why bother trying when you are just going to get sicker?

I say tri-athlete, go for it, the same with Basketball players and even people who's victories are getting a job or going grocery shopping.  We all face marathons every day, we just run a different path.

[stauffenberg]

We all know what we can and cannot do, but I'm more concerned about the attitude that the healthy majority takes away from reading articles like this, which they then use as the basis for mistreating the vulnerable minority of dialysis patients.  Healthy people love to blame sick people for their conditiion, and once they hear that ONE dialysis patient can be a triathelete, they will regard all those who can't cope with the basic demands of living as using their disease as an excuse to be lazy.  "If you only took care of yourself and did a little exercise," they will say to the dialysis patient languishing with a hemoglobin of 9, "then maybe you could be a productive member of society and not a parasite."

[Meinuk]

We all know what we can and cannot do, but I'm more concerned about the attitude that the healthy majority takes away from reading articles like this, which they then use as the basis for mistreating the vulnerable minority of dialysis patients. 

That, I can agree with.  Society needs a class in unlearning stereotypes. Discrimination comes in many forms.  But in the same vein, it is inspiring to know that someone in CKD can attain such athleticism.   We are the survivors in the middle.  Not on our deathbeds, but not always sprinting past the finish line.

[Rerun]

Just when I try and think I can live a "normal" life with CKD....something happens to bring me back to the basement.  It just depends on how stubborn you are.  How many times are you willing to get up and fight back to the point of a "normal life".

I'm pretty good now, so I got a part-time job.  I'm not stupid enough to think this will last for even a year.  I'm not being negative, I'm just being real.  Shit happens, but MORE shit happens if you are on dialysis.

[keith]

This theory that dialysis patients can do anything if they just take control of their lives is utter nonsense.  Viewed realistically, all life is a balance between objective factors you cannot change and subjective responses to those challenges which you can change.  There comes a point where the objective limiting forces in your life simply overcome your ability to take charge of things, and for most people, endstage renal failure represents just such a point.

Edgar Allen Poe had a story about how the will can so dominate the body that it can even compel the physical self to continue existing after death ("The Strange Case of Mr. Valdemar").  But that is fiction.

if everyone had the same mind set as you we would or should just give up and die   if i knew you and you told me something like this i would have to sat WTF i set goals for myself and guess what i did it and I'm still going oh and by the way i started a dialysis support group  and if i thought like you i wouldn't be helpping they people that come to the support group. But i must say to each their own

[Zach]

if everyone had the same mind set as you we would or should just give up and die 

I think that's excatly what he hopes we'll all to do -- commit suicide.

[pelagia]

Two people can go through the same experiences and experience them very differently.  Some people are blessed with enough of whatever it is that produces a natural high to keep net positive through the worst of things.  For others it doesn't seem to come as easily.  From what I have heard and read, research is increasingly showing that positive thinking can help with healing and fighting disease... So I guess it's important to work at it. 

In any case, this discussion is making me think of Tigger and Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh. 

[pelagia]

Two people can go through the same experiences and experience them very differently.  Some people are blessed with enough of whatever it is that produces a natural high to keep net positive through the worst of things.  For others it doesn't seem to come as easily.  From what I have heard and read, research is increasingly showing that positive thinking can help with healing and fighting disease... So I guess it's important to work at it. 

In any case, this discussion is making me think of Tigger and Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh. 

Actually, the more I think about this - well yes, Tigger is a little over the top.  Winnie is the one who is always looking for the "sweetness in life."