Bill does his own hemodialysis (HD) treatments at home 5 nights a week for 7–8 hours while he sleeps. He uses a NxStage machine. This is his most recent choice. Before switching to nocturnal home HD in 2007, Bill had done HD at home after work for 3–3.5 hours, 5 or 6 days a week for 6 years.

When Bill first did home HD, he used a B.Braun Dialog machine. A college friend helped with his treatments in exchange for free rent. In 2002, when the Aksys PHD machine got FDA approval for home use, Bill trained to do his treatments by himself. In 2006, he trained to use NxStage. Dialyzing at home, alone, at night is the latest stop on a journey with kidney failure that began in 1985.

Bill earned dual BS degrees in Accounting and Business/Marketing in 1985 at Central Washington University. Just after graduation, he learned that his kidneys were failing. Knowing that he would be facing major health issues, Bill took a trip around the world. Then, he worked as a VISTA volunteer, training people to teach adults how to read. By the spring of 1988 he was too sick to work. In July, his older brother gave him a kidney. Bill re-entered the work world in 1989 when he bought a yacht brokerage company.

In 1990, the kidney failed and Bill started dialysis. Within months, he knew that his wanderlust (he thinks of it a "comorbidity") would let him escape his HD routine. In 1991, he began to travel in the US, with stays at HD clinics along the way. In 1995, with a health plan from work, Bill began to explore the rest of the world again. Starting in the spring of 1995 with 23 days in Costa Rica, Bill took trips across the globe each year. His longest was a 3 month trip in 1999 with African safaris and 5 weeks in the Australian tropics.

1995 is also the year Bill found the Web. He began to visit an early Internet cafe called the Speakeasy, on 2nd Avenue in downtown Seattle. With Internet access on his travels, Bill became a correspondent. He brought travelogues and photos of his foreign HD adventures to the kidney world. Bill posted to early online sites like the Dialysis_Support listserv and Globaldialysis.com. In 1997, Nephrology News & Issues ran his first magazine story; an account of a 2 month tour of Europe. Others followed as his travels went on. Bill has done HD in 21 countries on five continents (and the list is still growing).

Bill's service to the kidney world has grown over time. He joined the board of trustees of the Northwest Kidney Centers (NKC), in December 1997. Also in 1997, he joined the board of the NKC Foundation, which raises funds for NKC's mission ("to promote the optimal health, quality of life and independence of people with kidney disease, through patient care, education and research"). Bill has also been a Dialysis Facility Compare CMS Technical Expert Panel member. He's given guidance for a CMS review of the Conditions for Coverage survey. He took part in the KCER Coalition for emergency planning. Bill has spoken at kidney meetings, written articles, and consulted. Now, with his blog "Dialysis from the Sharp End of the Needle", Bill pursues his passion for better dialysis care for himself and others, through knowledge, research, and best practices.