“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>Agnes Rusan of St. Louis is working, going to the grocery and handling everyday chores that most people take for granted. Kidney dialysis three times a week at a local facility used to take up the bulk of her day and her energy, which made those simple tasks more difficult.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I was doing it three times a week and I was on the machine four to four-and -a-half hours,” Rusan said. “When I got off, I had to go home, get into bed – probably couldn’t do anything for the rest of the day.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Rusan has been on dialysis since 2005 due to kidney failure after being treated for high blood pressure since she was 16 years old. That was in the mid-1970s, at the height of afro hairdos, bell-bottomed pants and “doing your own thing.” Looking back, Rusan admits that things could have turned out better.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Had I been doing the right things, like eating right and controlling my weight, I could have prevented it,” she said.
Dialysis is her life-saving treatment for
end-stage renal disease, but she always felt tired.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“When I went to the grocery store, I had to ride in one of those buggies,” she said. “I was just drained, emotionally and physically.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>She received her treatments at Affiliated Hospitals Dialysis Center, where the healthcare team decided to train Rusan to do her own dialysis in her home, using a portable hemodialysis device, called an NxStage System.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I do everything that you would do at the center. I am actually doing hemodialysis,” Rusan said. “You have to get trained to put your needles in. And once you are trained at doing it, it actually forms a buttonhole – so you are using blunt needles. They don’t hurt at all.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Within two weeks of beginning her hemodialysis at home, Rusan said, she felt better, which allowed her to leave the buggy parked at the grocery for someone else.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“The first thing, I saw that I could walk longer,” she said.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I used to could walk just down the hallway, and I would get tired from my bedroom to my front door. And then I just started walking longer, and I was, ‘Hmmm, I am not getting tired!’”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Now Rusan said she walks around in the shopping malls and feels fine. She also enjoys bowling.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Home dialysis may not be for everyone with permanent kidney failure.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Susan Ronning, RN, BSN, is the home hemodialysis coordinator at the center who trained Rusan. People who are motivated to participate in their own health care with a strong desire to maintain their independence make good candidates for home dialysis, but each physician and clinic makes those determinations.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>For Rusan, home dialysis gives her the energy, freedom and mobility to normalize her daily life. She administers dialysis at home more often than she would receive treatment at a health center, but it also takes less time.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I do my dialysis in the evening when I get home from work, so I’m usually on the machine by 6 p.m. and I’m off by 8:30 – 8:45 p.m.,” Rusan said.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“At home, I’m only on for two-and-a-half hours. It takes about a half-hour to prep the machine though. At home is a lot shorter time and it doesn’t wear your body down as much, I guess, but you do it more, because I do it five days a week versus three days per week.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Rusan said her doctor was able to reduce her days of home dialysis from six to five days a week, because it is working out so well for her.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I would tell anybody who is capable of doing it at home that they really, really should do it,” Rusan said. “Give it a try.”
