Home dialyzor Bill Peckham takes on the Colorado

Accepting the responsibility of dialyzing at home can be more than enough for some individuals. It's a delicate medical procedure with highly technical and sensitive equipment. How about taking that down the majestic Colorado River?

Seattle resident Bill Peckham, who has dialyzed in many corners of the world, decided to take his NxStage Medical SystemOne machine on an eight-day rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. He, along with friends and some renal professionals, including Dialysis Clinic Inc. Board chairman Doug Johnson, traverse 225 miles of the river July 3-10.

Peckham found out later that he wasn't the first dialyzor to raft the Colorado: the travel agency Wonderland Travel offered trips in the 1980s, taking up to lO dialyzors at a time. "They would raft a day and then dialyze a day, doing much of the Canyon as I did. They helicoptered out after Lava Falls;· said Peckham, recalling recent conversations with John Warner, who organized the trips.

Peckham had to come prepared for problems along the way, so he traveled with five boxes of miscellaneous supplies, two generators (one as a back-up) the NxStage Cycler and a backup cycler, and 24 five-liter bags of dialysate.

"The trip was a life affirming challenge; it tested my physical and emotional limits, the sort of trip you think you will never get to have once you start using dialysis. Being able to take this trip was a gift, I feel very grateful:' You can read more of the details of Peckham's trip at his website, "Dialysis from the sharp end of the needle" at www.billpeckham.com

Peckham with the rest of the river-rafting team