Embracing Home Hemodialysis: Insights from 3 Patients on Why It’s Their Top Choice
Summary
Patients speak from their real-life experiences with in-center treatment and home hemodialysis on Tablo, and how their lives have been impacted by their modality choice.
For David, Terry and Regina, their challenging journeys into end-stage renal disease (ESRD, also known as end-stage kidney disease, or ESKD) started off with a life-altering, disempowering reality: an assigned chair time three days a week at a dialysis clinic. They could have settled for this treatment modality as their new normal, as the majority of ESRD patients do today, with them and their care partners having to manage often time-consuming and inconvenient commutes, and the need to arrange their life and activities around their fixed dialysis schedule.
But after learning about the option of home hemodialysis, these patients decided in-center life is not how they want to live. Instead, they chose autonomy and flexibility, as they want as normal a life as possible. The Tablo® Hemodialysis System was designed to help them do exactly that. Here’s how these three patients came to that decision, the major benefits they’ve seen and where they are today.
Get Your Time Back
Inspiring recording artist, music producer, father and patient advocate, David Rush, started his kidney disease journey in high school. In his twenties, he crashed into dialysis at the hospital, after working at an office supply store during the day, and at a club working to build his music career every night. David describes the major impact on his life:
“After getting out of the hospital, I kept working on my music in the clubs, and going for in-center dialysis for five hours, three days a week. Five hours. You could fly to LA from New Jersey. That’s a part-time job. It took a toll on me. Because of my dialysis, I was losing time. The minutes that you have in your day to do the things you need to do for yourself, your family, your work, that some might take for granted. I was losing time, and that’s the raw truth.”
David’s kidney disease journey then took him through a living donor kidney transplant from his brother, later losing the kidney, and choosing to go home on Tablo instead of going back to the dialysis center. David describes how managing his own dialysis at home with Tablo has given him back time, so he can live life on his terms:
“Since starting Tablo, I’ve been blessed to be able to build a life around what matters most: my family, my music career, my advocacy work … Treating on my own schedule has enabled me to stay positive, and be there for my wife and kids. I’m also encouraging and educating other patients going through dialysis, or people at high risk of kidney disease, through various advocacy efforts, my social media and my music. I’m dedicated to making my mark as an inspiring voice for the kidney disease community through my #WinsOnly positive mental attitude.”
Read David’s Story
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Convenience Over a Commute
Terry and his wife and care partner Marlene live in the 1,400-population town of La Harpe, Illinois, on the Iowa border, and spent six months commuting about 40 miles each way from their rural town to a dialysis center for Terry’s hemodialysis.
Terry doesn’t drive due to vision problems, so Marlene would take him back and forth to his 1 p.m. chair time for his four-hour treatments, on two-lane country roads and sometimes in snowy weather. It took a financial toll on them having to drive back and forth to the center.
It also took a toll on their quality of life. Time spent at Terry’s in-center dialysis kept Marlene from activities she enjoys, such as helping with their two young grandchildren, and attending their baseball and basketball games.
After his nephrologist started an innovative new rural home hemodialysis program with Tablo, Terry chose to switch from in-center, and he became one of the first patients to go home with the machine in his area. Now, after several months of experience at home, Terry and Marlene are enjoying the convenience and control of managing his dialysis around their schedule and lifestyle.
Terry says what he likes most about Tablo home hemodialysis is the freedom. “My dialysis works around what we want to do, and we don’t have to drive to a center anymore,” he says.
Take Charge of Your Kidney Health
Regina, from Southfield, MI, lives by an inspirational saying: “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” Her journey from in-center to home hemodialysis is a perfect example of her positive spirit and determination to manage her kidney health.
After her ESRD diagnosis and a failed peritoneal dialysis catheter implantation, Regina’s nephrologist started her on in-clinic dialysis three days a week. Life as she knew it had taken an abrupt turn, as she had to stop doing what she loved: working and traveling.
“To have to sit down, as I am always active, mentally that was tough. But I told myself, Regina, this is happening. You can’t change it, so deal with it,” she says.
About two years later, during a monthly check-up, her nephrologist told her, “If I had to be on dialysis, I would consider doing home dialysis.”
Not knowing anything about it, Regina replied, “Well, that’s you. I’m comfortable here with my own remote, and my heated seat. I stick my arm out, I get my treatment and I’m gone.”
After thinking about it and following a hospital stay in 2018, she decided to start training to go home on the only FDA-cleared machine at the time. But, Regina found dialysis on the machine and storing all the supplies to be overwhelming, and she ended up back in-center.
Two years later, she saw a compact Tablo console at her nephrologist’s office and asked what it was. She learned Tablo was easy for home patients to train on and use, with step-by-step, animated touchscreen instructions. Soon after, she began her brief training, and her first Tablo home treatment was in November 2020.
Regina’s home dialysis care partner and nurse, Monique, loves helping patients take charge of their health with home dialysis. “I teach them that they have to be proactive and accountable in their care,” she says.
Regina says that she has a lot to be thankful for, and her positivity has kept her going. “I’ve got my doctors in place. I’ve got my Tablo machine and Monique to help me. I’m living the life. Your health is everything. That’s your wealth.”
