Baxter Machine Problems

[Whamo]

Last night my dialysis never seemed to end.  Dwell number four didn't end.  I finally had to end the the therapy without even taking the numbers.  I don't know what's going on with my machine.  It's 8AM and I started therapy at about 5PM.  I have an appointment
today with hearing, hearing loss, and then I have to deal with the machine again.  Things go well until they don't.  Live and learn.

[cassandra]

Hi Whamo did you get an engineer out?

     

[Whamo]

No engineer, yet.  I'll try the machine again today.  If it doesn't work tonight it's a service call for sure.

[Charlie B53]

IIRC  hit the Stop then down arrow until you get to the Bypass option then hit Enter

The machine may have you repeat this whole series as  some 'Bupass's' are hidden so to make you repeat the selection before ito goes to the next stage.


I think this was briefly mentioned once in training, never again until I had a problem and had to call Baxter very early one morning and the Tech walked me through it.   Got it done and still got my numbers.

Tech had me turn off the machine but once off the phone I remembered that it holds all information for up to 4 hours in case of power failure.  I turned it on and started scrolling down and Bingo!   There my numbers were.  All  good up to the point of that last fill failure.

I may have been lucky.  Turned out my problem was a bag, and not the machine.   Can you say "Operator error"?   One of my D'oh moments.

Hope yours turns out alright, and if not, that they get you a replacement machine quickly.

[kickingandscreaming]

As I'm just about to start cycler training next week, it's scary to read how much can go wrong and how complicated the fix might be.  I hope it's a minor issue.

[Fabkiwi06]

So far, all my issues on the cycler have been solved by unkinking lines and hitting the ok button. Although, that can be harder than rocket science when it wakes you up at 3am.

Mine came with a pretty comprehensive manual that spells out exactly how to solve almost all the problems myself. So far so good!

[sahern]

The other night I went to hook up and after I had removed the cap I realized the line was full of air.  I do not know why I did not notice it before.  What had happened is that I forgot to break the frangibles on the bags.  There were no alarms like before when I first started with PD and forgot to this a couple of times.  I started over and with the bags not even hooked up (on purpose) I started the machine.  The alarm finally did come in but it was well over 10 min before the alarm sounded. Everything has been working fine since that night.  I did have a bad cassette a week before. When everything works its easy but when it does not it is very frustrating.

[kickingandscreaming]

Well, I'll be joining you all pretty soon and then we'll see what hell my cycler brings.   Hopefully not much.  Right now I am on a brutal 3 hour dwell cycle on manual and I'm really tether to my house.  Every three hours means a lot of interruptions to my flow and  nightmare to plan around events and appointments.  The only good part is that I get to go to bed dry.  And I assume that when I start the cycler I will spend the day dry.  I'm a high-average transporter so long dwells are bad for me.

[Whamo]

   I figured out my problem.  It was low drain volume.  Thank God I had a couple of liters of green tea in the room.  After I washed that down the
machine was fine.  I will always keep extra fluids available from now on because i hate long dialysis sessions and mine are ten hours already.

[Charlie B53]

When I first started PD I was doing 4 manuals a day, Ico all night as the fourth fill.   $ hour dwells.   It really did aggravate my day.  Seemed like I'd just get started doing something in the yard, barn, or garden, and an alarm went off.  Time to clean up and go in for an exchange.   FINALLY get back to where I was an it didn't seem long, but...... alarm, time to clean up, etc..

This was all I knew for almost a year and a half.    Then I got my Cycler.   It is good to know that I CAN do manuals IF I ever needed to.  But no way will I voluntarily give up my Cycler.

[kickingandscreaming]

Congratulations, Whamo.  I'm not sure I understand why the machine would balk--was it that you didn't have enough fluid in you--according to the cycler?  Forgive my ignorance but I still haven't had my cycler training.

[Charlie B53]

There is a whole list of things in the Cycler Book that can go wrong and cause an Error, or the machine will just sort of pause and wait.    A 'low drain' volume is, or can be quite common especially if you may be a slow drainer while laying in bed like me.  If I happen to roll onto my left side I hardly drain at all and my machine will give me a three beep warning.  If I don't respond soon enough and roll over ( cause I'm asleep) in a little while the machine will go into full constant alarm.  forcing me to wake up, get up and hit the Stop button then figure out what went wrong.   Most often it is a 'Low Drain'.  I simply hit the Start button and sit there until it finishes that drain.  I drain much better while vertical.  Soon as it switches to Fill I can go back to bed and forget about it.

sometimes, rarely, the machine will display 'Error' and a number.  Those times I have to get out the book to look up that Error # then simply follow the directions to get back on track.

Over all, I think my Cycler a very well thought out machine, surprisingly reliable unless I forget to break a seal on a bag.  Those 'Operator Error' type problems.

The initial set up programming of your machine includes a 'Minimum Drain Volume' setting.   This is an easy place for future alarms if this number is set too high.   The machine 'thinks' you MUST drain at least this much at every drain time. If you are particularly 'dry' that day either haven't drank as much or sweated excessively so you are a bit 'light' on body weight you may not have enough uF or body position causes a poor drain, you will get more of these pauses and alarms.   It's an easy fix to make that setting change.   Check with your PD Nurse and they should walk you through any program adjustments.

[kickingandscreaming]

Thank you, Charlie, for the very clear explanation.  Can I have your phone number so I can call you in the middle of the night when alarms go off? 

[Charlie B53]

LOL   Your call may find me already up as I very rarely sleep more than 2 hours at a time.

But one thing I have learned, and being a 'Guy' this has been VERY difficult!

When all else fails, read the directions.

I did get new reading glasses this year.