Home Hemodialysis: A Patient's Perspective

This is a personal story of a member of a family with hereditary nephritis. My oldest brother died in 1946 before there was any dialysis or transplantation in the United States. My other brother died at the age of 22 in 1960 after unsuccessful kidney transplantation. I developed renal failure in 1980 and was lucky to survive due to the combination of several factors. The first, and most important, was the choice of home hemodialysis, which offers the longest patient survival of all dialysis modalities. The second was the help of my wife, who is my dialysis partner. The third was my conviction that it is not possible to get too much dialysis. I took control of my treatment and insisted on having the largest available dialyzers and performed long dialysis sessions. I was able to continue to work for the first 15 years on dialysis. As I look to the future, I am excited about the prospect of daily home hemodialysis, because I believe that this therapy will offer more efficient treatment and a nearly normal diet.