New UCSF study finds some diagnosed with kidney disease may not need dialysis
SAN FRANCISCO – Kidney disease is growing at an alarming rate, with many patients being told they will need dialysis to survive. A new UCSF study is showing that for some, dialysis doesn't need to be a life sentence.
It all started October 2020 when then 36-year-old Liddy Lawson started feeling sick.
Her white blood cell count was through the roof, she was helicoptered to California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia.
Lawson immediately started chemotherapy and for a moment it looked like she was out of the woods.
She had a bone marrow biopsy that showed she was cancer free, then everything changed, her heart stopped twice, her kidney function dropped, and her lungs filled with fluid. Lawson spent 51 days in the ICU, when she woke up, she was on 24 hour dialysis.
"When I woke up on dialysis in the ICU, I had no idea why because I knew I came in for cancer, I didn't know I was in kidney failure as well." Lawson told CBS News Bay Area
The treatments made her miserable. She had migraines and was constantly vomiting. Her weight plummeted and she had to be placed on a feeding tube. There was no end in sight, but then a ray of hope.
Dr. Chi Hsu is the Chief of the division of Nephrology at UCSF, he along with Dr. Ian McCoy were conducting a study on how patients with acute kidney disease requiring dialysis are currently being managed at outpatient dialysis clinics. Patients like Lawson, who were young and didn't have any comorbidities like heart disease or diabetes.
"I think, to understand, that acute kidney injury patients are different from patients with chronic kidney disease. Which right now, in real life practice, people are treated very similarly," Hsu said.
McCoy added, "Most of the research on acute kidney injury has been on when patients should start dialysis or how much dialysis they need in the hospital. and there has been relatively little research on how to take people off of dialysis when they start recover and how to recognize recovery."
Joining Hsu's study wasn't an easy decision.
"We were very concerned, that's all I had ever known was that I'd have to be on dialysis, here's a man saying maybe you don't," she said.
It's now been more than seven months since Lawson's last dialysis treatment. She's in regular contact with Hsu and she has to go in less frequently for bloodwork.
She is training to walk a marathon with her mom, Debbie. Lawson is also entering in baking competitions, but the sweetest part is knowing that she finally has a future.