Patient Story - Susan

Susan worked hard raising her children while holding down a full-time job at an architectural firm. As her children left home to start families of their own, Susan dreamed of continuing to work while splitting her free time between traveling with her husband, Cal, and being with her grandchildren. On her 40th birthday, Susan's kidneys failed, and she thought that this dream was gone forever.

Susan recalls walking into the dialysis unit for the first of what she thought would be a lifetime of in-center treatments, a thought that made her cry. Almost immediately after starting thrice-weekly dialysis treatments, Susan was forced to quit her job and go on permanent disability. The fatigue and pain that resulted from the dialysis was completely incapacitating. "That was my life," Susan recalled, "dialysis, come home, maybe Tuesdays or Wednesdays Cal and I would go to dinner, but that's it…it was a hard thing to realize that all my dreams had to shift."

Susan heard about the NxStage System One as a good alternative to conventional in-center hemo-dialysis and jumped at the opportunity. Susan and Cal eagerly completed the training for NxStage and began at-home dialysis. After only one treatment, Susan recognized a difference in the way she felt.

Not only was Susan more energized, but she was able to stop taking the blood pressure medicine she had been on for nearly 20 years. She felt the clinical benefits of daily dialysis with NxStage were matched by the added freedom and flexibility that the machine provided her and her family. "It gives you back your life," Susan exclaimed, "The minor inconvenience of doing this three hours a day is nothing compared to what I get out of it."

It has now been four years since Susan began treatment with NxStage, and she says she has been living the dream that she once thought was lost. Susan now resides in Oregon but most of her children still live in California. Thanks to the portability of NxStage, trips to see her family have been easy. And with her improved health and energy level, she says "I'm finally able to be active and play with my grandchildren!" She and her husband have also been able to travel on several vacations throughout the last four years.

Recently, Susan was fortunate enough to receive a kidney transplant. Before going forward with the transplant, Susan says her first priority was "to check in with NxStage to be sure that if I were to have problems with the transplant, I'd be able to return to this system. It is the best dialysis option I have found to date." She also credits NxStage with helping her body feel healthy enough to sustain a transplanted kidney, and says she was able to leave hospital care just five days after her surgery.

Susan describes her new lease on life by saying, "To be able to do what I want when I want, to be with my kids, to know that I am healthy and know that my life will now probably be a lot longer…it's a big deal!"

This patient has given NxStage Medical Inc. permission to share his/her experience with daily home therapy on the NxStage System One. The experiences reported by this patient will not necessarily be experienced by you. All patients differ and their experiences will vary.