Linda's HDF story: Finishing dialysis without painful leg cramps

Linda Davis has a lot to smile about these days. Since starting in-center hemodiafiltration (HDF), she says her dialysis treatments are going better. She has more energy, and the painful leg cramps that once made it difficult to finish treatment are no longer getting in her way.

But getting to this point wasn't easy.

"Let me tell you, before this, I had leg cramps," Linda recalls. "Sometimes they had to let me out early because I couldn't take no more. That's how painful it was."

Linda's care team at her Fresenius Kidney Care center had been searching for a way to help her. Nothing seemed to bring her the relief she needed.

"We've tried medications. We've tried all of the tricks that we know, and there was nothing that we found that would relieve it," says Stella Mason, RN, clinical manager. Medical Director Imran Shuja, MD, recalls her struggles, too. "We tried everything under the sun to try and help her, and she would just continue to cramp," he says.

Then came an opportunity to try something different. Linda's care team told her about HDF, a type of in-center dialysis that combines hemodialysis with an additional filtration process called hemofiltration. When they explained that HDF might help with her leg cramps, Linda didn't hesitate.

"They just said there was a new treatment coming out that would help me with my leg cramps. And I said, yes, yes!" Linda recalls, laughing.