Northwest Kidney Centers

It’s not the end of the world, for sure. It’s 99% mental.

Kidney disease has never kept Washington state resident Larry Epley from living the life he wants—filled with travel, camping, horseback riding and golfing. Larry used to work a 10-hour shift as a truck driver, then take a half-hour ferry ride from his Vashon Island home to West Seattle for 3 hours of dialysis at Northwest Kidney Centers. Once he took a break from camping at Crystal Mountain to get a treatment an hour away at another Northwest Kidney Centers clinic.

A transplant from his wife, Trish, eventually failed, and they joke that Trish has refused to donate again.

Now retired and using peritoneal dialysis, Larry has more time to pursue his many interests, including taking care of his 2006 Corvette. Every year he creates a 9-hole golf course on his 5-acre property and invites friends to a tournament and picnic. Asked how he’s managed 30 years with kidney disease, Larry said, “I’m easygoing. Things roll off me.”

Northwest Kidney Centers is a Seattle-based not-for-profit dialysis provider, founded in 1962 as the first out-of-hospital dialysis program in the world. From the early days it has been a strong promoter of home treatments, given that patients often feel better and live longer if they are able to do self-dialysis. Larry is among the 16 percent of Northwest Kidney Centers patients who choose to dialyze at home, compared to 8.5 percent nationally. To learn more, visit www.nwkidney.org.