Changed from Hemo to APD 2 nights under our belt BUT

[SKS]

Last Hemo was a week ago tomorrow.  PD training each day since with cycler starting at home 2 days ago.  Now for day or should I say night.  Going fairly well with conversations and analysis calls to PD nurse. BUT for some reason swelling back in feet and BP seems elevated thought weight is not indicating that should be happening.  Using 2 green bags each night and a green manual today intra day.  I think that last Thursday a shortened training period due to a VA appt and nothing until Fri night MAY be the reason.  The UF numbers during cycle are staying low. Dwell is 2500 each but adjusted tonight to last fill at 1500 as Sat had a total UF of 23 until manual drain after last dwell was 3750.  This morning UF was 198 with manual drain of 4800.  The intraday manual green UF was about 400.  When on Hemo seldom had a gain of over 2K.  Feet are still puffy.  Tonight have relocated cycler after discussion with PD nurse since our bedroom has a step down from cycler location.  Any random experiences that might give insight appreciated.  Of course fluid intake etc is being monitored.  Maybe tomorrow will get stringent on that.

[Charlie B53]

The 3 1/2 years I used my Cycler, before my infection and switch to Hemo, my Cycler was on a shorter fish tank stand/table making it almost level with the bed surface.  Worked well for me.

It was a rare occasion that I 'missed' a nights treatment, lilke a problem with the machine and had to wait for a new one to be delivered.  It took almost three days for my weight to come back to my 'normal'.

I also used only green bags, the 6 liter ones.  Originally started with 5 L bags but increased after the second year.  A minor change in the machine program, the increased dialysis did make an improvement in my labs.

Instead of that additional daily exchange my Dr had me using Ico as that last fill, and carried it all day.  I never had to bother doing another manual.

[SKS]

Thanks Charlie,
The cycler is now level with bed but still got low UF of first two drains.  Alarm on the 1st drain and I get him to turn over.  No alarm second that I heard anyway   Sleeps with a CPAP so sleeps very sound.  When we got up this morning was stopped on last drain low UF. As he got up and started moving around got ended up with a total UF of 938 with a 4th fill of (adjusted to 1500 last night) still in to drain manually. 

I guess my new question is -  do others get poor drain on early cycles.  appears to be cleaning well as good color and since heparin added on Sat night no fibrin

[kickingandscreaming]

I can get a low drain alarm at any point in the process.  Not just in early drains.

The Low UF alarm at the last drain is a stupid meaningless setting.  I don't see the point of it except to wake me out of a deep sleep.  When it happens I press Stop and then Go and it goes on and completes itself.

[SKS]

PD nurse had me lower level again.  Getting good Total UF but nearly all on manual drain after last fill.  Seems as though more fluid in feet though a little less today than any time since started Hemo.  One day at a time this is still better process than going to center next winter.

Update - now been 9 days on cycler PD.  A bit of problem with swelling in feet and legs though.  We think it's just that during training since Dry Weight was not elevated the training nurse used yellow bags and was off Hemo except for one day with green bags.  She told us to use green until our visit this Tuesday if there was still swelling in feet and ankles and no leg cramps.  Also the BP has been a bit high but a little better each day.  We had a couple miserable (well I did since I answer the alarm) nights with nearly constant alarms but since he started turning and staying turned it's been much better.  Sleeping with a CPAP so i'm wondering if the total sound sleep without movement compromises the drain.  We've moved and lowered machine and I think it's now at the best level. 

I will say I don't think Russ could handle the disposal of all the tubes, bags, etc with his foot drop, walker, etc.  When I'm gone we have manual bags for him to use which should be fine.

Any input appreciated.  Oh one more thing - we're wondering WHY they want him to disconnect and then connect to use drain bag for the last fill or rather last drain on days we're just sitting about the house instead of leaving machine on and using the manual drain.  We asked but didn't get much of an answer yet.