My first night on the cycler

[Joe]

Here's hoping they get you adjusted correctly Deanne. I come off the cycler in the morning with a full 2L that I drain 3 hours later. My UF from the cycler is typically low or negative, but it is not unusual for my manual drain in the morning to be 3500+. By the time I have everything off, I'm at 1400-1600 for my UF. My Neph hems and haws at my cycler UF, but is ok with the overall numbers.

As for being constipated, I do both the Colace and MiraLax and it keeps everything moving. 

[Bambino_Bear]

Hi Deanne!

I was just wondering how everything is going with the cycler.  Do you like it a lot better than Manuals?  Are you having any pain?

Hope all is well!   

[Deanne]

I still tend to have drain pain. I'm using the tidal program and it helps for the most part. I'm dry during the day, with only a 100 ml fill, and get a bit of cramping towards the evening. I think this is after I've absorbed that 100 ml.

My yorkie mix is *not* my BFF tonight. The little bugger said he wanted out immediately after I connected tonight. I learned the hard way that pulling the power plug at that point causes the Liberty to restart the entire setup process. I tried running through it with the supplies I already had connected but it knew I didn't have enough solution so I mostly had to start over. I'm waiting for the bag to warm now so I can go to sleep. If I'd been thinking clearly I would've just added a bag instead of replacing the heater bag.


Not a happy camper! Anyone want a neurotic, blind, brain-damaged, lying (he really didn't need to go out) yorkie mix?

Last week was my first PET and KT/V tests doing manuals for it. I have to repeat it this week using the cycler. I'm hoping my dwell time will be shortened. 9.5 hours in bed every night is a long time.

[JLM]

After getting back power with the Liberty, you can restart your treatment.  In your Liberty manual there on page 196 explains the procedure to deal with a power failure, which is what you have when you unplugged it.  As for wait for the bag to warm up, it will start working on its own or you can press OK for it to start right away.  My bags are at room temperature and I don't have a problem with filling without the bag warmed.  BUT, you may........

[Deanne]

I pull the power regularly to take the dog out. The issue I found out is if you pull the plug before that first drain or fill actually starts. This time, I pulled it right after I connected but before I clicked "Next" to start the first drain and when I plugged it back in, it went back to "Starting Setup" and then told me to remove the cartridge. Live & learn, I guess! I know it's supposed to wait for the fill until it's warmed up, but after I had to restart the setup, I didn't want to trust anything else, so I waited a while before I let it continue, just in case......

[JLM]

I get my dog to go "walkie'

[JLM]

I get my dog to go 'walkie' when I start opening bags and just before I hook up I have him come in.  I have a perfect setup.  My machine is in my living room.  I can get to the computer room, the bathroom, the bedroom, the kitchen, the living room and out the front door about 3 or 4 feet.  Of course, it has to do with the lay out of my house.  I drain into the toilet.    Before I got the machine I had thought about setting it up in the living room, but then I think outside of the box on a lot of things, it's my nature.

[Deanne]

How long is your line to have so much freedom? My bedroom and family room are on opposite ends of the house. I do most of the setup stuff at dinner time and then walk away from it until bedtime. I take Tigger's water away at about 6:00 pm and start to get ready for bed at about 8:00. I send Tigger out to potty, brush teeth, take meds, then send Tigger out a second time right before I plop him on the bed, then mask and wash hands to connect. If he needs to go out after that I need to pull the plug and pull the cart down the hall from the bedroom to the family room. He doesn't give me time to disconnect and it seems safer to reduce the number of connects / disconnects anyway. Draining into the toilet would be nice, but with Tigger's potty issues it doesn't seem practical.

[JLM]

The drain line on the cassette is about a foot longer than the patient line.  When I was in Wisconsin this past summer I was able to order an extension drain line (#026-20036) so I could set the cycler in a place so my patient line was long enough to get to the bedroom and the bathroom and the connected drain lines could drain into the toilet.  On my way to the bathroom at night I had to pull the machine a foot closer to the bathroom and move it back when I went back to the bedroom.  Mayhaps if you measure the length you need to drain into the toilet your clinic could fix you up to do so.  This extension is not for the patient line.

[Deanne]

Thanks for the idea. I don't think it'd work for me since my bedroom/bathroom and door for the dog are at opposite ends of the house - too far for extensions and drain lines. I'd love to see a redesign with quick connect / disconnect options. I'm envisioning something where I could push a lever and have both the patient line and drain lines autommatically and safely connected/disconnected in an instant, so I could push a button/pull a lever, jump out of bed, and go, and then crawl back into bed, push another button and the used pin removed and ejected, reconnect the patient line, and have the new pin put into place for the next connection. It would need to have cartridges of pre-loaded pins. It seems like it would be electronically do-able and it would decrease infection levels by removing any manual contact during connections.

Oh well - It isn't a perfect world. At least I sold my multi-level townhouse long before starting dialysis. Wheeling a cart through a one-level house is much easier than it would've been trying to navigate two flights of stairs to let the dog out at my last home.

[JLM]

How would your clinic feel about having a long heavy duty extension cord?  Since I have had electrical spikes here and messed up my machine, I have a heavy duty power cord with surge protection.  I haven't had a spike since....

[Deanne]

A long extension cord might do the trick! I don't think my center would approve but what they don't know won't hurt me!  If I plug it in in the living room I bet it would reach both the bedroom and family room. JLM I think you're my new BFF.

[Joe]

Deanne, just get a heavy duty extension cord, 12 gauge or bigger. That will carry the cycler load without any problems.

[JLM]

Don't have anything else plugged into that outlet.

[JLM]

Please note the smaller the gauge number, the heavier the wire.  Ya, it's a tad confusing.....

[Deanne]

I wasn't able to get out for a cord yesterday to give it a try. Hopefully sometime this week. Tigger ended up very sick Saturday night, to the point where I thought about disconnecting and taking him to the emergency clinic during the middle of the night. Instead I just kept a close eye on him all night Saturday, and all day yesterday. After all that, I was too tired to move yesterday, so I spent the majority of the day on the couch.

[Bambino_Bear]

Oh I am so sorry about Tigger.  I hope he is doing better.  I have furrbabies too.  I don't know if I could love them anymore than I do!   

[Deanne]

I thought when I got up this morning that I'd be calling the vet as soon as they opened, but he seemed a bit better. He had a couple bites of food and drank some water, and he wanted treats and his squeaky toy. Yesterday he wouldn't even move off the couch when he heard me rattle a treat bag.

[JLM]

Is Tigger a senior?  My Dusty is 11, only he doesn't know it.  What a guy....!

[Deanne]

He's only 9, but was born blind due to neurological issues. My vet said he was probably deprived of oxygen during birth. I don't know which of his other idiosyncrasies are also due to brain damage, like a drinking problem and inability to always remember that the correct order is to go outside and then potty, and that it's a bad idea to bite people. He's really a very good little lap dog. His oddities are easier to handle than my hyperactive way-too-smart dachshund. I just need to watch the time and take away his water by about 6:00 and realize there are still times when he'll need to go out during the night and he needs to be escorted to the door. I have a dog door but he can't be trained to use it.

[JLM]

He is sooooooooooooo lucky to have you to love him.

[Bambino_Bear]

I am so glad he is doing better!  :-)

[MooseMom]

Deanne, now that it has been a little while since you've begun PD, are you pretty happy and comfortable with how things are going?

Love to Tigger.

[Deanne]

I think it's going very well overall. My biggest concern before starting was that I wouldn't be able to live a "normal" life. This isn't the case. I still need  more sleep than most people seem to need, but I'm not sure if that's because I started INH again, if it's due to kidney failure/dialysis, or if it's just the way I am. I'm able to think more clearly and I'm able to participate at work more than than before I started dialysis. Before I started, I'd see a meeting on my calendar, groan, and wonder if there was a way to get out of it. Then I'd call in (our meetings are all conference calls), put my phone on mute, hope no one asked me for anything, and surf the internet until it was over. I'm able to pay attention more often now, and I'm interested in picking up new projects instead of dreading them. My appetite is much better now, too. It seems like I'm almost always hungry. My neph she I even looked healthier just a couple of weeks after starting dialysis. I think the bags under my eyes are gone and I look younger.

My first KT/V was great and my nurse said my first labs post-dialysis were perfect. My blood pressure needs to come down a bit more, but it's headed in the right direction. I have diet restrictions, of course. I don't like these, but the aren't as bad as I thought they'd be. It's hard to stay away from dairy foods, and I'd kill for a Diet Coke and big slice of pepperoni pizza (extra cheese!). I try to focus on things I can still have instead of thinking about what I can't have.

[MooseMom]

I am very glad to hear this, Deanne!  I am so glad that dialysis seems to be doing what it is meant to do.