Having kidney failure requiring dialysis treatments can seem like a lifetime jail sentence: knowing that you will forever be tied to a clinic for treatments three times a week in order to survive.

Ken Fleming, who now winters in Palm Bay, faced the reality of chronic kidney disease in 1999. He was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease and was told that his kidneys would fail within a year.

In response, he quit his job in environmental services and took a dream trip, riding his Harley 10,000 miles to Alaska, followed in a truck by his wife, Cathy.

“I was healthy all my life until this happened,” he said. “I felt like once I had to start dialysis, my life was going to change, and I wouldn’t be able to travel and have adventures like that again.”

His kidney function lasted much longer than expected, but, in 2006, Fleming  was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease, and started traditional in-center hemo dialysis.

But after hearing about the option of dialysis at home with the NxStage System One, he decided to give make a change.

“I was losing a lot of time,” he explained. “I would go to dialysis for about five hours, and then I’d come home and be so wiped out, I slept for another three or four. I had no energy. If there was a better way, I was willing to give it a try.”

After he and Cathy had been trained, Ken Fleming started treatments at home in January 2007, becoming the 1,000th person to be on the NxStage system.

“My kidney doctor had told me about it because he said I’d be a good candidate,’’ he said.

Now, the couple has more or less resumed their lives: splitting their time between homes in Glens Falls, N.Y., and Palm Bay and traveling with their children and eight grandchildren.

In January, they even went on a weeklong cruise out of Miami with other NxStage patients.

“Being able to travel with dialysis has given me a sense of freedom. I would recommend it to anyone. You get your life back,” he said.