Kidney patients meet Kidney Health Australia Ambassador

Mrs Williamson, a kidney transplant recipient of 14 years and a mother of two, visited dialysis patient Barbara Dunne and husband Neil, at the Mount Isa Renal Dialysis Unit in between talks at the hospital and was impressed with Mrs Dunne’s determination to have a kidney transplant.

“She told me, ‘I’m getting a new kidney and I’ll do what it takes to get one!’ and I thought, with determination like that, she probably will,” Mrs Williamson said.

Mrs Dunne managed her diabetes through considerable weight loss, which proved she had determination, and she encouraged her five children and her 13 grandchildren to live healthy lives.

“I don’t want them to end up like me,” she said.

On dialysis three times a week, Mrs Dunne is grateful to do it in Mount Isa, rather than Townsville, where she spent three months at the beginning of her treatment before she was stable enough to be sent to Mount Isa. But she would still like to return home to Boulia.

“It’s a long time to be away from home,” she said.

Her husband Neil, is her carer and had learnt how to set up home peritoneal dialysis, which enabled the couple to stay at home in Boulia but Mrs Dunne contracted an infection, and the couple had to shift to Mount Isa for life-sustaining haemodialysis treatment. The Dunne family, like many Indigenous people, find it necessary to relocate in order to access dialysis services. This burden of family relocation becomes an additional challenge kidney patients face in order to survive.

Mrs Dunne’s symptoms of kidney disease were the same as Mrs Williamson’s, she said.

“I was tired, felt sick and had no energy and my feet were swelling.”

Mrs Williamson said kidney disease could be asymptomatic, with the patient not registering any symptoms.

“Patients can lose up to 90% of their kidney function without realising it,” she said.

“This is why events like today are so important as they encourage Mount Isa locals to ask their doctor or health team for a Kidney Health Check, which includes a blood pressure test, blood test and urine test to check if their kidneys are ok.”

For Mrs Williamson, the kidney transplant, which she called “a gift from her father”, was immediately successful, with no complications.

“Within a day I was up and about, feeling fantastic. My poor dad, though was feeling the pain of having a kidney extracted. It was a bit ironic! However within no time, Dad recovered and wouldn’t change it for the world...he got his daughter back!”

Mrs Williamson has had no dialysis since the transplant, but had to come to terms with training her bladder, after two years on dialysis.

“Dialysis patients often don’t pass urine at all, so that’s something you have to get used to, with a kidney transplant, not to mention the new immunosuppressant medications, however the transplant has given me back my quality of life!”

Her new kidney is situated at the front of her abdomen, and her old kidneys, although not functioning, were left in her body, as is usual. The process of removing the old kidneys is considered too traumatic for transplant patients.

It was an encouraging conversation for the Dunnes. Mrs Dunne is on the list for a kidney transplant, but patients usually have a 3 1⁄2 to four year wait. There are a lot of factors including finding the most compatible match, and there is a scored weighting system for transplant patients.