Kidney health mostly ‘under the radar’

Waikouaiti woman Karen Williamson was in a philosophical mood yesterday as she was hooked up to a dialysis machine for a five-hour session.

"It’s amazing what you’ll get used to to keep yourself alive."

Ms Williamson is one of a small number of southerners for whom today — World Kidney Day — is especially significant.

A peritoneal dialysis patient for three years, Ms Williamson (65) is going through training for home haemodialysis after having to switch methods in September last year.

While she has a machine at home, she is still trekking to Dunedin three times a week for five-hour-long treatments until she is up to speed with the new machine.

"It’s exhausting, I fall asleep afterwards ... they reckon being on this machine for five hours is like doing a full marathon."

Ms Williamson is on the waiting list for a transplant, but will have to endure regular dialysis until a suitable donor is found.

"The staff are great and so are the other patients," she said.

"You’re here for five hours, you watch them and get to know them, you exchange stories and pass on tips to each other."

Dialysis — artificial purification of the blood — is the most visible manifestation of kidney disease, an ailment which is widespread but very difficult to detect.

SDHB dialysis service charge nurse manager Blair Donkin said he and his staff had 99 patients now; 30 on peritoneal dialysis (where cleaning fluid is dispensed through a belly pouch) and 67 on haemodialysis dialysis, where a machine is used to clean the blood.

"Chronic kidney disease is unfortunately one of those illnesses that is largely invisible until there has been significant injury," Mr Donkin said.

"Kidney health seems to largely fly under the radar and that is the point of the awareness month and day, to try and keep it in the public’s mind."

Mr Donkin said the majority of the service’s clients were fully independent and only needed to visit the service occasionally.

While the number fluctuates as patients qualify for kidney transplants, it has remained in the 90s for most of the past decade.

"People are aware of sodium and exercise and diet and blood pressure and so on," Mr Donkin said.

"But the connection between all of those lifestyle factors and kidney health, we still have a way to go to make that connection in the public’s mind."

mike.houlahan@odt.co.nz