it finally happened to me.

[Adam_W]

Well, I got on the machine early this afternoon, and the first half hour of the tx was fine. Then it kept retrying the balancing system check, and finally gave a red #90. Yup, the cartridge was leaking. I returned my blood, and now I'm waiting for the inside of the machine to dry out before I prime a new cartridge to get back on. The lot# was 7087713. This sucks.

Adam

[MyssAnne]

Oh Adam. That does suck. Majorly.

[Romona]

that really bites.

[goofynina]

Damn, i guess when it rains it really does pour huh?  Just try and stay in good spirits and hopefully things will straighten out soon, it better or else    Take care Adam and hang in there 

[Adam_W]

I just got off the machine after attempt number two, and everything worked fine. I'll be returning the bad cartridge to NxStage, and hopefully none of us NxStagers will have to deal with these leaks anymore. Now I have a sticky mess to clean from the top of my Pureflow and the floor. Oh well, I'd still much rather deal with this than going back in-centre.

Adam

[boclark54]

Only been home with Nxstage a few weeks and just wondering about a few things (my husband is the one on dialysis) When you have a problem and rinse back and then redo machine can you leave needles in since your rinsed back or do you take them out and reneedle and start all over again? How long can blood actually sit without recirculating if their is a problem before you can continue treatment or rinseback? We were told probably about 2 minutes, we've only had to call Nxstage once and it was during a set-up where their was no rush and after 6:00 and so had to go through answering service (caller #2 in line) then they patch through to whoever is on call, but even in the daytime how long can blood actually sit before returned? Most problems I've read about seem like it would take longer then that to resolve. These are problems we should be asking our nurse (and will) but he's the first patient in Unit training on Nextstage. Thanks in advance for any answers, reading on IHD has made this everything easier knowing in advance what may come up, like the other night's leak in tub.

[jbeany]

Only been home with Nxstage a few weeks and just wondering about a few things (my husband is the one on dialysis) When you have a problem and rinse back and then redo machine can you leave needles in since your rinsed back or do you take them out and reneedle and start all over again? How long can blood actually sit without recirculating if their is a problem before you can continue treatment or rinseback? We were told probably about 2 minutes, we've only had to call Nxstage once and it was during a set-up where their was no rush and after 6:00 and so had to go through answering service (caller #2 in line) then they patch through to whoever is on call, but even in the daytime how long can blood actually sit before returned? Most problems I've read about seem like it would take longer then that to resolve. These are problems we should be asking our nurse (and will) but he's the first patient in Unit training on Nextstage. Thanks in advance for any answers, reading on IHD has made this everything easier knowing in advance what may come up, like the other night's leak in tub.

How long the blood can sit depends on a number of factors - from how long it's been since you got your dose of heparin to what your current hemoglobin is at.  The best answer is "Not Long!"  I don't clot quickly, but anything after 5 or 6 minutes makes me really nervous.  You don't have to reneedle if you've returned the blood, but you do need to flush the needles out while you are waiting.  Draw saline into a couple of syringes, attach them to the needles and flush all the blood back.  If you are going thru a full prime and restart, you might want to do it a couple of times while you are waiting, just to make sure everything stays unclotted.

[Earlinda]

jbeany I never thought of flushing the needles when there is a problem.  I am still relatively new to NxStage and during December when I had all the problems I would sometimes go into a panic mode as my center is 175 miles away and the hospitals in my area have no idea what nxstage is.

Earlinda

[silverhead]

This week we had a leak coming from the fitting on the bottom of the filter, where the Dyalisate leaves the filter and goes to the drain (yellow clamp) it was at the 90 degree elbow, was in panic for a minute when I saw it, but tech support agreed with me that it was minor enough (I put a container under it to catch the drips) to continue treatment but watch it closely, will return it to them when the box arrives, I figure a bad glue job down in Mexico. total loss was maybe a half cup.
About keeping the needles open, I would flush it with saline, and then keep a full syringe of saline on the line and every 5-6 minutes push a small amount in to keep the needle open........
Tom