The best stories are those that put a human face on the issue of kidney disease.  Through our “Patient Experience” section, we hope to share stories of those patients who are doing amazing things from raising a family to working numerous jobs and even training/competing in an Iron Man triathlon all while dealing with kidney disease.  Each and every patient has a unique story to tell, and we hope you find this monthly segment helpful as you learn more about this looming health crisis in the United States.

PROFILE OF VALERIE HARRIS-FIELD

At three p.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Valerie Harris-Fields waits for the first shift of her children to walk through the front door. Over the next half hour seven of her eight children will come home from yet another day at school and prepare for an evening of homework, basketball practices, and a family dinner.

A stressful and hectic day of balancing children’s schedules is, for some, more than one mom can handle. But for Valerie, it’s just part of her normal routine. It is made even more remarkable by knowing that she suffers from End Stage Renal Disease, otherwise known as kidney failure.

As if Valerie’s days weren’t hectic enough, consider the way she begins them: Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning at 11 a.m. Valerie drives to the Baltimore County Dialysis Facility near her home of 15 years in Reisterstown, Maryland. She weighs herself, checks her temperature, and gathers all her supplies while waiting for the technician to turn on the dialysis machine. She is hooked up to the machine for the next four hours while greeting the patients and caregivers she describes as her second family.

Valerie was first diagnosed with End Stage Renal Failure three months after giving birth to her youngest child in 2002. Immediately, she went on dialysis and has been ever since. Before her diagnosis Valerie had very limited knowledge of kidney disease and the potential risk factors.

“My family has a history of high blood pressure but no one had ever been diagnosed with kidney disease,” she says. What she didn’t know then, but certainly knows now, is that high blood pressure along with hypertension is one of the greatest risk factors for kidney disease. “Whenever people at church ask me about kidney disease I always stress the risks involved with high blood pressure,” she adds.

A former teacher, Valerie is constantly seeking opportunities to educate people about kidney disease and its potential risk factors. Several years ago, while home schooling two of her sons, they completed a lesson on the kidneys. Valerie supplemented the lesson with a fieldtrip to Baltimore County Dialysis where patients and staff hosted them and helped them understand about the kidneys and their function.

Recently Valerie has found new outlets to educate people about kidney disease. She has become an active member of DaVita Patient Citizens, a patient advocacy group in Washington D.C. that seeks to generate awareness about kidney care on Capitol Hill.

“Having the opportunity to speak with senators, congressmen, and their staffs has been extremely fulfilling,” she added, “Most of the people on Capitol Hill find it hard to believe that we are dialysis patients.

They don’t understand that with proper care you can live a full life. I stress to the congressmen how much this disease is specifically targeting the African American community and the need for continued quality care.”

For those just being diagnosed with kidney failure and beginning dialysis she urges them to gain as much information as possible about dialysis.

After four years of dialysis at a facility, she is now training for the Home Hemodialysis program, which uses the same “artificial kidney” to cleanse her blood at home, instead of traveling to a facility. Eventually, upon completion of the program, she will be able to dialyze at home for a little over an hour each day which she hopes will allow her to go back to teaching full time.

Valerie is the mother of eight children of ages ranging from 22 to four. While her oldest son attends school in Virginia, Valerie is deeply involved in the activities of the other seven. “It seems like everything revolves around basketball,” she jokes. In fact, five of her children are currently in season.

When not attending basketball practices and games, she finds time to be an active PTA member as well as sing in the church choir.

Valerie Harris-Fields is a parent, teacher, advocate, team mother, singer. And a dialysis patient.