If you are one of the millions who have to go for dialysis treatments weekly, this may be welcomed news.
There is a procedure that can cut the waiting time for patients needing to start.
For more than 14 years, Homer Glen resident Brent Song, 55, traded the cold, snowy Chicago winters for the tropical breezes and warm waters of Hawaii and mission work with his late wife, Elizabeth, in Mexico.
Yet this year, a recent diagnosis of late-stage renal failure threatened his vacation plans to winter in a warmer climate.
“If my kidney function continues to deteriorate, it might not be a good idea for me to go to Mexico,” he says explaining that he hopes to see better health soon, once he starts hemodialysis. “There are lots of dialysis centers all over Hawaii, so I’m hopeful I’ll be able to get back to the life I had.”
Song, who has lived with Type 2 diabetes for 20 years, admits he’s had a longstanding struggle to adopt a heart-healthy lifestyle. As a result, “I destroyed my own kidneys,” he says, adding that in 2017, he had a cancerous tumor removed from his left renal gland.
“Mr. Song’s need for dialysis was becoming very urgent,” says Dr. Eugene Tanquilut, a vascular surgeon at Advocate South Suburban Hospital, in Hazel Crest, IL. “Mr. Song’s kidneys are not doing an effective job of cleaning waste or removing enough fluid from his blood. These wastes and fluids are toxic. Eventually, without hemodialysis, these toxins will be fatal within a few weeks.”
Dialysis is a treatment that mimics kidney functions for patients with serious renal disease. This treatment filters the patient’s blood to remove impurities, then returns the cleaned blood back into their body.
To make this procedure possible, patients like Song have a minor surgery to create a direct