VICTORVILLE • Diagnosed with kidney failure five years ago, Jim Smith started dialysis at a medical center four hours a day, three times a week.

But his patience lasted just two weeks before he gave up. Instead, he found an alternative dialysis method that would allow him to get his treatment at home and on the road.

“I didn’t want to do it their way. I wanted to do it my way,” Smith said. “It’s Frank Sinatra, I do it my way.”

Ineligible for a transplant, Smith has been conducting dialysis on his own ever since. Now the Seattle resident travels around the country with his wife and dog in a recreational vehicle equipped with a dialysis machine to encourage other kidney patients to make the switch as well.

Last week, he stopped at Victorville’s Desert Cities Dialysis, which partners with Massachusetts-based NxStage Medical Inc. to provide local patients with the home-therapy option. The local medical center has six patients who went through training to achieve more flexible and less exhausting therapy compared to in-center dialysis.

Kidneys work as a filter to rid the body of waste and fluids. Most of the 400,000 Americans with failing kidneys stay alive by going to a dialysis clinic to get their blood purified by a machine. But a major study published in the New England Journal of Medicine released last year indicated that a conventional three-times-a-week treatment may not be enough. Most home dialysis patients get on a machine once a day at their convenience.

“Home dialysis gives you more freedom to do things. It fit my lifestyle better,” said Richard Murellson, a Victorville resident who became the first home-therapy patient at Desert Cities Dialysis in August.

When he was receiving in-center treatment, it took him a day to recover and he had almost no energy left to do anything else, Murellson said. Because waste and fluid accumulated during the days he didn’t go to the center, he could only take 32 ounces of fluid a day and had to limit his food.

With the help of his wife, he now operates a NxStage machine and cleans his blood for four hours in the morning, six days a week. He takes less blood pressure medications and has more energy, Murellson said.

“I have the energy and ability to help my wife do things around the house,” the 53-year-old said.

Murellson used to run a security camera company and said he’s now looking to get back into the business.

But the home dialysis option isn’t for everyone.

Patients have to be stable and competent enough to operate and monitor the treatments. They also need a partner who will go through the intensive training program with them and care for them in case of an emergency.

Murellson and his wife took five days of training for nearly a month before they went home with a $20,000 machine.

“The biggest fear is that it looks complicated,” Murellson said. “No one thinks they can do it. But once they go through training, they realize they can do it.”

The federal government last year started giving clinics a financial incentive to teach patients to do dialysis at home. Medicare covers the cost of dialysis, regardless of age, spending about $77,000 annually per person. “I think it’s going to be the future of where dialysis is headed to,” said Dr. Kumar Prashanth of Desert Cities Dialysis. “It’s not for everyone. But it’s an option for patients who want to be at home.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Tomoya Shimura may be reached at (760) 955-5368 or TShimura @VVDailyPress.com. Follow Tomoya on Facebook at facebook.com/ShimuraTomoya.

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