Homechoice Dialysis Machine

[Burton]

I posted a message on the board yesterday but can't find it.
I asked if anyone had experience of the above machine and was it better than 4 bags a day
Yesterday I also introduced myself but have not seen it on this website

[Riki]

I definitely prefer it to bag exchange.  It runs at night while you're asleep, and except for maybe one exchange through the day, the day is yours.  It gives a freedom that bag exchange does not.

[peleroja]

Yup, I love my PD cycler and doing it at night.  With the addition of Extraneal, I have my days all to myself.  Lovely!

[Jie]

Cycler has some advantages over the manual exchange: doing at night and free during the day and less chance for infection. The disadvantage is that residual kidney function may lose faster than the manual exchange.

[Riki]

Yup, I love my PD cycler and doing it at night.  With the addition of Extraneal, I have my days all to myself.  Lovely!

I couldn't use extraneal.  I used it once or twice, but it dried me out so bad that I had to be hospitalized.  Even without it, I didn't need to do an extra run through the day unless I saw fibrin in the bags.  Then I would do a run with heparin in it.

Cycler has some advantages over the manual exchange: doing at night and free during the day and less chance for infection. The disadvantage is that residual kidney function may lose faster than the manual exchange.

My residual kidney function didn't start to go until I was about 4 years in, and it took almost another 2 years for it to be gone completely.  Even then,  I was relying on a scar tissue riddled rejected transplant kidney

[fearless]

Doing PD on the Homechoice Cycler gives you the freedom from doing exchanges throughout the day.  I did it for eight years and it made my life liveable.  But, depending on your disease progression, it may not be as effective as hemodialysis after some period of time.  So, if you have absolutely no urine output it may become more difficult to get enough exchanges to make up for that.  It's important to be vigilant with all aspects of your therapy and keep track of your lab readings. 
But I think using the cycler is the least disruptive dialysis to living a normal life.

[Riki]

oh yeah.. if I had the choice, I'd go back to using the cycler in a heartbeat.  Unfortunately, it's something that I'll never be able to do again

[pitagory]

For me its been almost like I am not on dialysis. I only dialis at night no exchanges during the day and that is perfect for me since I work full time and have 2 teenage boys that I am always taking somewere . I connect my self at 10pm disconnect at 6AM and I am ready to start my day. I have herd some people say that they don't like the noise  but I sleep right through the night and my numbers seem to be good. there are people that do like doing the 4 exchanges during the day but with my job I could not do that. so its totally up to you and what your lifestyle is. but if you go with the cycler it is a good idea to learn how to do both in case of an emergency.