Bellarine grandmother Yvonne Wilson fronting at-home dialysis campaign
Patients have increasingly turned to dialysis at home amid the coronavirus crisis, with a Bellarine Peninsula grandmother explaining the huge impact it has had on her family’s life.
Geelong
Don't miss out on the headlines from Geelong. Followed categories will be added to My News.
PATIENTS have increasingly turned to dialysis at home amid the coronavirus crisis, with a Bellarine Peninsula grandmother set to be the face of a national at-home health campaign.
Yvonne Wilson, 67, started receiving haemodialysis at her Indented Head home in November 2019, before the pandemic struck.
Mrs Wilson developed kidney disease at 40, with her husband Leigh her carer ever since.
In July she received a kidney transplant.
Before receiving haemodialysis in the home, Mr Wilson would drive his wife 40 minutes each way from their home to Geelong for treatment.
Including the haemodialysis and prep-time, it was often a six hour round trip, three times a week.
Mrs Wilson said treatment at home was much more convenient, and the Wilsons are set to become the faces of a new ‘Medibank at Home’ national campaign launching this month.
“The renal nurse Jeff would come to our home three times a week,” Mrs Wilson said.
“We trusted each other.
“Being treated at home also helped clear my mind.
“With one-on-one care, I could talk openly to Jeff in the privacy of home.”
She said there was “a lot of anticipation and stress prior to treatment at hospital”.
“I was often up at 5.30am for the travel if I was the first group session of the day,” she said.
“I’m also highly immune-suppressed.
“Being there so often, I was concerned about being exposed to hospital borne infections. “With in-home treatment, there was flexibility and choice over when and where I receive my care.”
Mrs Wilson said the effect of haemodialysis on the body was “as gruelling as running 10 laps of a football field,” which was especially hard for someone in their late sixties.
The grandmother of two young boys said being treated at home improved the couple’s quality of life, since she could rest immediately after her treatment.
“I felt less fatigued, with several more ‘good days’ where we could be a normal family,” she said.
“Dialysis fitted into our lives, rather than the other way around.”
The number of dialysis at home services provided to Medibank customers has increased by 88 per cent, with a 77 per cent spike in new enrolments since February, driven by the COVID-19 health emergency.
There was also an 102 per cent increase in Medibank customers receiving chemotherapy treatment and medical infusions at home between February and July 2020.
The Medibank at Home service is a group of trials and programs – including chemotherapy and medical infusions, haemodialysis, palliative care and rehabilitation – giving eligible customers the choice to receive treatment in their own home, instead of hospital.
For clinically suitable Medibank customers, these services are delivered in the customer’s home at a time that suits.
MORE NEWS:
OTHER JOBS UNDER THREAT IF OIL REFINERY SHUTS
BURNING PILES OF RUBBISH SPARKS HOUSE FIRE
NORLANE BONE DISCOVERY REMAINS A MYSTERY
Originally published as Bellarine grandmother Yvonne Wilson fronting at-home dialysis campaign