Patient Stories: Ryan Stanger
Ryan Stanger is a 28-year-old Tufts University dental student who lives in Watertown, Massachusetts. Two years ago, Ryan was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that caused kidney failure. Shortly thereafter, Ryan had to start treatment at a dialysis clinic.
Ryan used to travel to the clinic three times a week for his 4-hour treatments. The sessions were so long and intense that Ryan felt very tired afterwards. Being a dental student, he had to attend classes during the day and schedule his treatments for the evening, which made the process even more exhausting. Ryan was also unhappy that he had to monitor the foods he ate and restrict his diet so stringently.
A few months ago, Ryan learned from a family friend about a new, portable dialysis machine from NxStage that allows patients to perform treatments at home. Ryan contacted Dr. Martin Gelman, who runs Dialysis At Home, to see if he would be a candidate for the new therapy. Ryan started the 6-week training program and in September took the machine home and started doing his own treatments 5 days a week, for approximately 2 1/2 hours each time.
Ryan feels much better doing the treatments more often and at home. "Daily home dialysis doesn't take that much out of you," Ryan says. "Having the freedom to travel and being able to do therapy anywhere and at anytime I want is great!" Ryan doesn't have to be as restricted with his diet anymore, since the daily treatments have improved his overall health. Ryan is also pleased with the flexibility of this new therapy and happy with the fact that he doesn't have to schedule his classes—and his life—around dialysis any more.