Patient Stories: Dadi Ding
Optimal benefits of short daily therapy
Bet you never thought you'd hear a dialysis patient talk about how much she likes to dialyze, but that's how Aksys PHD® System user Dadi Ding feels about her therapy. Dadi is actually a transplant nurse and a long-term dialysis patient who recently became the first person in the Chicago area to perform short daily therapy on the PHD.
"I feel so much better," said Dadi. "I hate to skip a day. I dialyze seven times a week." With the PHD, she feels good enough to work long hours as a nurse for kidney transplant patients. She has gained enough free time to go out with friends and do volunteer work on weekends.
Prior to February 2004, Dadi dialyzed for 12 years at home using a conventional hemodialysis machine. "It was so difficult to do because I had to work," explains Dadi. "It was also very time-consuming to set up and clean the machine. It left me no time for a life."
The PHD saves Dadi 90 minutes a day and eliminates the need to dialyze in-center where, in Dadi's words, "I would have to follow their schedule, not mine."
The long journey for help
Dadi has suffered from kidney problems since she was two years old. Born in China, she came to the United States when she was 28 for a kidney transplant from her brother, but once she arrived her doctors found that they were not immunologically compatible.
She did get a transplant in 1982, but it failed, leaving her dependent on dialysis, which was not then available in China. For 10 years she was able to perform peritoneal dialysis (PD). Coincidentally, at that time Dadi began her career working as a dialysis nurse. After another failed transplant attempt, she could no longer rely on PD.
Unwilling to let her disease force her to quit working or take over her life, Dadi, with the help of her nephrologist, Dr. Susan Hou, was able to find a clinic that would set her up with a traditional home dialysis system. But over time the inconvenience, schedule demands and sub-optimal results drove her to search for something more "user-friendly." She heard about the PHD System and began searching for a program, which led her to the University of Chicago Hospitals and her current nephrologist, Dr. Orly Kohn.
Home feels better
Dadi clearly feels better using the PHD. She has no cramps or nausea and can eat the fruits and vegetables she loves, thanks to improved potassium control. When asked how she would respond if the PHD were ever taken away from her, she deadpans, "I would kill to get it back." As a fellow patient, she hopes many more dialysis patients hear about the PHD System so they can improve the way they feel and live.