Judith is a 67-year-old wife and mother of three from Willits, Calif. She's very familiar with the side effects of kidney disease, having witnessed her father pass away from kidney failure when she was only 24 years old and her grandfather pass away when he was in his fifties. Unfortunately, Judith inherited the polycystic kidney disease that plagued her family.
When Judith first started dialysis, she went to a clinic three times a week for treatments, spent one hour driving to and from the clinic, and had to wait until there was a free machine. Judith felt her treatment days were not her own, since she'd miss most of the day and get home just as her son arrived from school. She became increasingly dissatisfied with her lifestyle and constraints.
During one of her routine treatments, Judith noticed a bulletin posted in her clinic announcing that it would become a trial site for a new, portable dialysis machine. She enrolled in the study and started receiving daily, more frequent dialysis treatments with NxStage's System One. After training, Judith was allowed to take the machine home and do treatments herself with the help of her husband.
Judith noticed the benefits of more frequent treatment immediately with NxStage. "Shortly after starting on NxStage, I had more energy and could sleep better at night," Judith reports. "I also really enjoyed not having to drive three times a week and having the freedom to do the treatment anytime I want," she adds. Judith has been using the NxStage System One for more than seven years and is still experiencing the health benefits of daily, more frequent home hemodialysis, including increased energy levels and improved appetite. She volunteers her time to speak with other dialysis patients about NxStage and helps ease any concerns they may have about doing daily, more frequent home hemodialysis. Judith often tells patients they have so much to gain with the increased freedom and flexibility and health benefits that come along with daily, more frequent home therapy with the NxStage System One.
Shortly after starting on NxStage, Judith and her husband moved to the home they had always dreamed of, which is in a remote area of California and not close to any dialysis clinic. "We feel really free and privileged to live where we want and not worry about my dialysis treatments,"' Judith says. Judith and her husband live on 20 acres so there's always work to be done to maintain the land. They also have an orchard with over 20 trees that need to be pruned and cared for and they raise their own chickens. Now that Judith is feeling better, has more energy and has more freedom and flexibility, and her life isn't dictated by her dialysis treatments. Rather, she's able to schedule her treatments around her life.