Working on PD Cycler - how do you work your schedule?

[Deanne]

I've been working from home full-time since I started PD and now the party's over. My manager offered me a great new opportunity working with a different type of documetation (I'm a tech writer), but it means working hands-on with an engineering team. I'll have to start going in to the office most days. I'm connected for a little over 9.5 hours at night. I prefer to work 7 am to 4 pm, with about 1/2 hour drive time each way, so I'll need to start getting up by about 5:30 am, nearly an hour earlier than what I've been doing. Do you connect for the first fill and then disconnect earlier in the evening to maintain some sort of life in the evenings during the first dwell time? I'll have to get used to functioning on less sleep, too, but I can probably handle that by using an alarm clock.

[justme15]

right now i'm doing 8 hrs on the cycler.  so i hook up around 1030-11pm and i'm finished around 630-730am.  this works fine for me so I can get up, do my paperwork and then leave the house around 1030am.
i imagine that if i have to do longer time on the cycler, thus connecting earlier, i might disconnect during my dwell so I can hang out with my husband

[Joe]

Deanne, if you are on by 8, you will be done by 5:30. This pretty much the schedule I was on when I was doing PD. My patient likne was long enough for me to be connected to my cycler and still be able to go out into the family room and watch TV and socialize in the evening. I typically went to bed after the late news here (it's at 10). While I had the necessary supplies to disconnect from the cycler after the first fill, I never really had to do it. Hope you find a solution to this that works for you.

[Deanne]

I'm thinking about connecting at 7:30-ish to fill and then disconnecting until 9. I need a lot of sleep and 9:00 is kind of pushing it for lateness to get up at 5:30, but I don't want to give up my entire life to either work or dialysis. I'm on INH to treat latent TB and I think it makes me need extra sleep. I can't go to bed too early because I'd have to worry about Tigger (dog) needing to go out to potty during the night. The later I get him out before bed, the greater the chance he won't pee *in* bed. I'll have to order some extra connection things and assume I'll need to connect at least three times per night instead of two.

[amanda100wilson]

 I didn't work at the time but U had a very young son.  I used to routinely fill and the disconnect, or if you don't feel happy doing this for infection concerns, do an evening manual exchange.

[Weggy]

I work 8:30-5:30 Monday through Friday. I have a 15 minute commute to work. I hook up at 10:45PM and disconnect at 7:15AM. I shower, eat breakfast and take my dog out in 55 minutes. I hook up earlier on days I take my dog to day camp, but only by 30 minutes.

However, I am pretty tired by 10PM. My dog is almost 2 years old, but she is potty trained. She holds it when I am in bed. However, if I ignore her when I wake up, she will pee in my apartment.

There are caps for the cycler's tubing so it stays sterile if you want to do a fill and not be attached. I got a few from my clinic since I was having bathroom issues. If you need them everyday, you have to order them with your supplies.

[Deanne]

I can connect, fill, and disconnect after I get home from work. I think the risk factor would be the same as a manual exchange. I'd rather do that than pull the power plug and drag the cart back and forth across the house with me like I did when I first started dialysis.

In thinking about it, I suspect my biggest issue will be sleep related. I can connect and disconnect earlier to get my 9.5 hour treatment done, but I think INH makes me need more sleep than average. When I tried taking INH before I started dialysis, I had to discontinue it because I couldn't stay awake more than an hour or so at a time. I'm able to stay awake during the day now, but it's hard to get up in the mornings. I used to wake up naturally by 5:30 every morning. Now I sleep 9 - 10 hours a night and have to drag myself out of bed, using an alarm if I want to get up by 6:30. I'm trying to get used to less sleep again, but it's sure hard and I'll probably be more tired when I start going in to the office. I'll manage. I'm just trying to prepare for the change to make sure I'm successful at it. Just six more months and I'll be off INH. By then I should have a transplant, too.

In the meantime, I'm trying to find small things I can do to get through the next six months. I ordered a case of Nepro so I can shorten my morning routine and have breakfast in the car on the way to work. I hope I like it! 

[JaeCie]

When I was on PD, I hooked up at 8 at night and was done at 5 in the morning. I had an hour and a half commute to work both ways; worked all day, came home and did stuff that I needed to do like bring in the mail, cook dinner. I would do any other stuff that required a lot of movement in the house then be hooked up by 8 at night. I use the cycler so it was automatic and I had a long hose that allowed me to go to the bathroom, go in the living room and watch tv or socialise if I had people over. I could work on my computer in my bedroom, read and of course get up whenever I needed to do things. We were always cautioned against having dogs and cats which is fine with me so that wasn't an issue. Hemo was worse for me than PD. I am sure you will work it out...the body has a way of adjusting to changes in schedules.

[okarol]

Could you do the cycler for at night but do one manual exchange during the day? I know people who do a drain/fill in their office or in their car. Usually at lunch time.

[Deanne]

I guess if I have to, I could start doing a manual exchange during the day. I'm trying to avoid that. It's all working out so far. My new work group hasn't said anything about being in the office with them yet. I think they assume I'm in an office building, just not their building. I haven't seen any reason to point out the fact that I'm really sitting on my couch at home. I'm easy to contact and very quick to respond when anyone calls, emails, or sends an IM so they have no reason to doubt that I'm really working.

[billybags]

If you keep disconnecting and reconnecting you are at great risk of infections, be very careful.

[Wat76]

Hi Deanne,

 I get on the cycler between 8 and 9 pm through the week.  I have to drive an hour to work and back.   I get off the machine between 4 and 5 am, leave home for work at 6 am, work from 7 am to 1630.  It works for me, I am dry during the day.  Love it. Friday and Saturday, it a great time because I get on whenever I feel like it.

[Emerson Burick]

Do you connect for the first fill and then disconnect earlier in the evening to maintain some sort of life in the evenings during the first dwell time?

That's exactly what I used to do. Don't forget to change the settings on your cycler to go by time, rather than volume (that way if things take longer it cuts a few minutes off your dwell rather than making you late for work).

As far as the lack of sleep, I have my own office with a door that locks. I keep a sleeping bag there and sometimes nap through lunch. Perhaps you could arrange something similar.