Dialysis by evening, Steelers video games by day: Sports activities photographer stays wholesome whereas awaiting kidney transplant

Barry Reeger eats wholesome and workouts, identical to the skilled soccer gamers he images on Sundays at Acrisure Stadium.

But there’s a giant distinction within the Hempfield man’s repertoire that helps him sustain with the motion on the sector — eight hours of in a single day peritoneal dialysis.

When his kidney operate began to say no final 12 months, Reeger knew he couldn’t juggle freelance images work and going to a dialysis clinic a number of instances every week.

“I wanted to continue to do what I love,” he mentioned. “I have wanted to do this job since I was in junior high. … It’s my identity.”

Reeger, 55, has been capable of keep that profession id by choosing nightly dialysis at house. For eight hours, he is attached to a machine that makes use of a cleaning fluid and the within lining of his stomach as a pure filter to take away toxins, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

He is a part of a rising variety of sufferers who select at-home dialysis whereas awaiting a kidney transplant. The variety of new sufferers choosing that technique within the U.S. has elevated from 7.5% in 2011 to 13.4% in 2021, according to a National Institutes of Health report.

“I’m very thankful for the technology,” he mentioned. “I like to be busy doing things.”

After managing Type 2 diabetes since 2003 with weight loss plan and train, routine blood work in January 2024 confirmed his kidney operate was compromised. He later realized a kidney damage mixed with diabetes had broken the organs. The reason for the kidney damage stays a thriller.

Reeger began at-home therapies in April 2024 via Dialysis Clinic, Inc. in Hempfield and was added to UPMC’s transplant list four months later. Nearly 90,000 folks nationwide have been ready for a kidney transplant in September 2024, probably the most of any organ, according to the Health Resources & Services Administration.

A personal particular person, it’s been tough for him to go public with such a monumental request in an effort to discover a dwelling donor, which is most well-liked over a cadaver donor.

“I try to be funny about it, I never come out and say ‘Hey, will you give me your organ,’ ” Reeger mentioned together with his distinctive snort.

“I want to help out somebody else as much I would like to help myself,” he mentioned. “It’s a weird thing to be asking people for their kidney.”

In addition to masking the Steelers on a contract foundation for a wire service, Reeger images Penn State University soccer video games and native youth and highschool sporting occasions. He does different contract work for the Associated Press, together with masking Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, whereas additionally educating images courses at Seton Hill University and Westmoreland County Community College.

Some of these sports activities jobs can require down-to-the-minute planning in the case of hooking as much as the dialysis machine at house, comparable to a 3:30 p.m. Penn State house sport on a Saturday adopted by a 1 p.m. Sunday kickoff in Pittsburgh. On nights like that, Jennifer Reeger, 49, often will get it prepared for him.

“I need an honorary degree in nephrology,” she joked.

The couple, married since 1999, have two sons — Chase, 13, and Cameron, 23. Both beforehand labored on the Trib. Jennifer Reeger was a reporter from 1999 to 2013 and Barry was a photographer for 22 years earlier than leaving in 2016.

“I spent 30 years in this business, I’ve been on the other side of this table” feeling sympathy for somebody in want, Barry mentioned throughout an interview final week. “I never thought I’d be one of those people.”

The Reegers hope to lift consciousness about at-home dialysis and the necessity for dwelling organ donors. Until that excellent match comes, they’ll proceed to lean on one another, household and mates for assist, and attempt to go about regular days, even when nothing is regular.

“I’m relying on a friend here,” he mentioned. ” I would like a good friend to step up, or a stranger, who desires to do one thing good for any individual.”