Pureflow problems and more problems....

[kidney4traci]

I have had two weeks of one thing after another.  Had a leak with two cartridges, not surprised as it was going around.  Then just sitting there about one hour into treatments and I hear a "pop".  Then about a minute later started getting a 39 alarm and was not able to clear alarm.  Called nxstage and they walked through several trouble shooting things and could not figure out the problem.  He recommended I take myself off because we didn't know if we would returen the blood when there has been a blood leak.  So I hung up and called my oncall nurse and she said to go ahead and return it.  Well during this whole time I am just cycling back and forth from alarm and pressing mute and go back and forth to just keep things going as best possible when all of a sudden I realized it stopped alarming. So I finish tx without knowing why this all happened.  Well, anyway, it happened again the next tx so nxstage says it must be the control panel, they will ship me out a new one.  THEY ARE HEAVY!!  They ship out a new one, we have to pull the old one and ship it back.  Then I do the next tx and the same problem happends again.   I called nxstage and this other guy starts to have me look at the back of the case itself and I find that a wire has blown and that is the cause.  So then they send me a new case too, again HEAVY!!! and finally I am up and running normal.  Whew!!  I remember the POP sound and that must of been when the wire blew, but no one knows why.  Oh welll ... just wanted to share.

[KR Cincy]

Is there anything MORE frustrating than that damn alarm going off and doing everything the manual says to do and it still keeps dinging? We've had very few problems, but when it happens it can just deflate you...you feel defeated by an inanimate object, and that's never good.

Glad you figured out the problem and will get it fixed!

[Don]

Been there on both of them. So you are not alone. Then my cycler went up a month later. You are right too about the weight. Send 'em a bill for the repairs you did....... $32 per hour sounds good

Still,  better than being in the center

Don & Linda

[jbeany]

I kept getting Red 923.  They said it was a computer glitch.  I finally got enough of them that they replaced my machine.  Got the new one hooked up, primed, was cannulated and all ready to go and the darn thing gave me a Red error message in the first minute of treatment and wouldn't budge - I had to do a manual blood return.  Thankfully, it was the cartridge and not the machine, but I was started so late because of waiting for the courier to bring the new machine that we had to use bags because my batch was going to expire before the end of the run. And of course - no heater. 

I agree though - it's still better than in-clinic!

[kidney4traci]

I can't believe you did a treatment without the heater!  I forgot to turn mine on once and started freezing my tail off!!  Sorry to hear you had to do the whole tx that way.  But yes, anything is better than the clinics...