My wife and I have been doing Home Hemodialysis using NxStage for almost seven years.

As a renal failure patient, Home Hemodialysis has dramatically improved my quality of life. I have told my friends and family that my quality of life improved by 100%.

But the wear-and-tear on my wife who assists me almost daily, and continues to work full-time increased every day. Home Hemodialysis for her is like a second job on top of her current full-time job.

We dialyze six times per week, Monday through Friday as soon as she arrives home from work and on a variable schedule on Saturday. I dialyze for just over two hours, and then clean up, so I’m done around 8:30 PM. By the time I made dinner, we wouldn’t eat until 9:00 PM. If we encountered any problems while dialyzing, it might be even later.

My wife eventually said she couldn’t wait until that late to eat dinner, it was affecting her sleep. There is also a great deal of emotional energy expended ensuring there are no mechanical errors, or setup errors I’ve made, or fistula problems, any of which could lead to serious medical consequences, even death.

My wife over the last seven years has assisted me over 2,000 times. But the worst part is her inability to do anything after work. No drinks and conversations with work associates, no educational classes in evenings, she doesn’t even have time to stop for anything on the way home. If I get on Hemodialysis late, I get off even later in the evening.

Her help has been a life-saver for me on multiple occasions, but it dramatically lowered her quality of life being the sole care provider for my serious medical needs on an almost daily basis.

About a year ago, I researched local respite care companies. Most said they do not provide medical care. After further research I located Helping Hands Respite Care and discussed what my wife and I needed. They agreed to investigate providing me with a Home Hemodialysis partner. After many telephone discussions we both decided to move forward with them assisting me on a trial-basis.

My local dialysis provider, Fresenius Medical Care provided four hours of training to two Helping Hands staff. The two staff were very intelligent, dedicated, compassionate and caring.

Both my wife and I had reservations about their ability to take on this responsibility with me, and that some mistakes could be life threatening.

I provided an additional two half days of training, with my wife attending the last training session, and we agreed they are able to handle my needs. I warned Helping Hands management and their two staff that Home Hemodialysis is 2 1/2 hours of sheer boredom, punctuated by occasional moments of sheer terror for both their staff, and for me. 

I’ve had NxStage cycler failures while being assisted by Helping Hands, and one time accidentally pulled a needle from my arm, while attempting to adjust my Venus needle to reduce pressure. During both of these incidents, the Helping Hands staff responded calmly, and appropriately, just like my wife would have.

Helping Hands has been assisting me twice per week for almost a year. I consider my partnership with this Respite Care company a great success and am very happy with their services. I also recently joined their Board of Directors.
My wife and I have an improved relationship, she is feeling less stress from Home Hemodialysis, and we now get to eat dinner together two times a week more than we had for many years.

Our relationship was negatively affected by Home Hemodialysis over so many years, but I didn’t realize how hard it is on the care provider. Please do yourself and your partner a favor and discuss this.

If you are lucky enough to live in the Mid-Michigan area, the company I use is willing to assist other NxStage Home Hemodialysis patients:

Helping Hands Respite Care

Jeff Nunham

201 Hillside Court

East Lansing, MI 48910

Ph: (517) 372-6671
http://www.helpinghandsrespite.care/