Dialysis time is down time for Dion Hylton. Three times a week for more than three hours at a time...he can relax.....listen to music....and count his blessings.
"I feel we're further down the road than we were a year and a half ago."
While his blood flows through a filter removing wastes and extra fluids.....Hylton remembers a time after he was diagnosed with kidney failure when his treatment, and his life wasn't as pleasant.
"The complication is, I almost died." There was a drastic change in my fatigue. If I went to walk, you know I can go up a flight of stairs and all of a sudden it was like wow, wait a minute, why, you know I'm tired."
"Do you know how the pressures have been during the different dialysis."
"My blood pressures have been really good."
Hylton used to receive dialysis through a catheter.....after serious complications....Dr. Jeffrey Kremen......Chief of Vascular Surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital offered Hylton a better option.
On his arm they've created a Fistula...or connection for him to better receive his dialysis treatments.
"A fistula is a connection between an artery and a vein that's made usually in the arm and it basically accelerates the blood flow."
"Mr. Hylton has a natural fistula that was constructed by transposing his basilic vein."
"The reason that we like to do natural fistulas is that the artificial fistulas clot up fairly frequently. They stop working."
This has decreased his risk of infection....and increased Hyltons' quality of life.
"Now I have my life back, you know?" I'm able to coach. I'm able to do a lot of things with my family you know, that I couldn't do before."
He'll remain happy and healthy as long as he can until he reaches the point where he needs a kidney transplant.
