the drain tubes

[boswife]

So, i keep looking at pictures of the nxStage setup but cant seem to understand where the water and drain tubes go.  At class, she showed us that they are hooked up to a sink but didnt know whre it drained.. And how far can you go from water source?? And is it hooked up all the while it's purifying, and in use?  I guess i'll learn it all at class, but just another surprise we had that i didnt know about.  And........ then im hearing that you mix it up, and within 4 hours you use it?  That means if your doing it say at 6pm, you'ld have to be home by 2pm to set up, and then be back again within 4 hours?? Am i all mixed up??  Anyone explain that process a bit?  Thanks, and if ya think i should just wait and learn, thats ok, i just want to know as much as possible now.. Gonna go searching some soon as i give hubby a cold pack for his back.. jerked it out while fishing..    Thanks for your time people..

[silverhead]

I will try to provide a few answers, starting with the Pureflow unit.
I think it is best to plan on having the Cycler set on top of it, so having a plan about where you will do the dialysis will help a lot, once the Pureflow, which isn't real light, but manageable by 2 people, and the filter Pak is primed and gains a lot of weight, then it produces 60 liters of Dialisate it is NOT going to move until emptied.
As far as water and drain lines go, NxStage provides everything you need including 40 foot each of a slender blue line for water and a black line for waste. They provide various connectors to either "snap" on the faucet or another one to make a permanent connection under the sink (it install right above the shut off valve for the cold water, simply shut off the valve, disconnect the line to the faucet, install the new valve then reconnect the faucet line to the new device)
The waste line can simply be pushed into the drain of the sink or bathtub, or you could tape it on the edge of the toilet, I my case, part of the supplied kit is a clamp you put around the waste line under the sink, they give good instruction on how to drill a hole and push the drain line into it and you are done. If you use the faucet hook-up it only needs to be on the faucet during the process of making the batch, after that it does not need to be hooked up.
In our case we did the Dialysis in the living room right near the wall to her Bathroom, I took a 2 inch hole-saw and cut a hole through to under her sink and made the connections, it made for a tidy setup, and I never had to worry about the waste line spewing 25 liters of smelly stuff all over if it slipped somehow.
I'm not sure what you mean about the four hours, when you make a batch in the Pureflow, it takes 7 hours to do so and then you have 65 hours to use it or lose it, they do say that a batch is good for 72 hours, but that time begins when you start making the batch. As far as the Cycler goes, when you load a cartridge and setup to do a prime, the Cycler takes 18 minutes to prime and then you can start after that, I quite often would let it run anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours before doing the actual needling and proceeding with her treatments.
Keep asking questions, but believe me you will learn it as they teach you......
Tom

[boswife]

Wonderfuly explained!!  Thank you so much for all you give..  Im so determined to do this, at least learn it and give it our best shot, but my head is swerling with questions.  Im so glad to have you all here who have done it to give me ups and downs of it... thanks again...

[jbeany]

I liked the under sink set-up.  It's permanently connected to the pureflow, and you don't have to worry about messing with drain lines.  Although, it was pretty easy to hook mine up.  I had a mobile home with only paneling on the walls and no insulation between rooms. (Yup, it was an old trailer!) I placed the pureflow where I wanted it in the bedroom next to the bathroom wall, drilled holes so the tubes ran under the bathroom sink inside the cupboards and did the attachments underneath.  You don't have to see the tubes when you aren't using the machine, and you don't have to turn the water on and off.

[boswife]

I do love the idea of 'perminant' but im trying to figure that if it's in the front room, what would i put over the tubes/lines so their not steped on.  It would be perfect if he wanted to be in the bedroom as it backs right up to the bathroom, but he wants the 'window' seat in the front room  .. hum,, i also was hoping to roll it away after use , but think im going to be sewing up some sort of a covering instead so we dont have to *see* our new friend ALL day..lol

[vcarmody]

We do the bags so we don't have to worry about hooking up the pure flow. When were ready we just hang the bags. My husband just drilled a small hole in the floor (like you do for the cable) and ran the drain line down the basement right into the sewer. I never used pure flow but I think I prefer the bags because no mixing.

[boswife]

Well well, another learning... Sooooo, are you saying we can get *ready* bags and not HAVE to mix?? what would be the down side to that.  I totally would rather that but thought they would only do that for trips.

[jbeany]

Check with your center - some give the option either way.  If your water quality is bad enough, you may not want the pureflow regardless.  (They will run tests for that for you.)  Even if you use the pure flow, you will end up with a stack of bagged premix in case the pure flow has issues.  It depends on space available for storage, too.  If you don't have much space, the pureflow unmixed bags take up much less space than an equivalent amount of premixed ones.  Once you start training, you will see the boxes and have a better idea of how much space they take up - and if you want to deal with the pureflow or not.

You can put the pureflow on a wheeled cart, but when it is full with fluid, it's VERY heavy.  Even the "portable" part - the dialysis machine itself- is very heavy - something like 60 or 70 pounds.  It's a huge improvement over the 6 foot beasts at the center, but it's surely not easy to move around in a room.

Another consideration for location - sometime, somehow, the thing is going to spring a leak.  The drain line is good for that if you use pureflow (and that stinks, literally).  I've also had the bags accidentally drain out the filter port while I was leaving it in cycle before it was time to hook up.  So either choice is going to make it possible that you will end up squishy underfoot.  Which possible location has the easiest floor to clean up messes from?

Although, if he's going to feel like being in the bedroom is isolating - make the living room work for him no matter what.  A plastic mat, something - just keep it where he's going to be a part of the activity in the house.

[cookie2008]

I use bags also, at our center they have not switched to the pureflow, but with my well I have I wouldnt be able to use the pureflow.

[dialysismomma]

Hi there my fiance has been on home hemo for a year now and we have done pure flow ever sincer we started. We live in an apartment and cant drill holes in the wall or under the sink so where is what we have done. We run the lines along the edge of the floor from the living room through the dining room and into the kitchen sink. I noticed you said something about not stepping on them. Well I walk on them all the time they are made of very hard plastic and are not easy to break. Also we use a lot of duct tape on the floors and against the cabints to keep them in place. I also use a scissor clamp to clamp them it the drying towel under my dish drying rack. I clean the sink out after every time he does his dialysis cause as we put it we dont want to have his pee hanging out in the sink. Also it will be important to do the bleach flush procedure about once a week this will keep the smell down because it does smell like sulfur and farts in my house if i dont do the bleach flush procedure. I hope this helps and if you have any further questions feel free to drop me a line.

[lillinny]

That was one of the 'things' that surprised us, too!  Funny how they don't mention these things until you are 'into the training'.  We had the incoming water hooked up to the plumbing by a plumber.  The drain is actually stuck into the sink and exterior.  If I had it to do over, I would have the plumber put that into the plumbing as well, but..........whatever!  So far it has worked well.  The lines are duct taped down along the corner of the room.  We are set up in the bedroom and the lines go thru the wall into our bathroom.

The only 'problem' we had was one night the darn drain stopped working and we got an alarm!  Lovely.  Figured out that it was clogged, drabbed a bucket and did the rest of the tx into that.  then actually read the book 
and saw that you are suppose to run bleach thru the liner periodically.  followed the directions and it worked great!  Another 'learning experience'...........