crazy night with Baxters cycler.

[billybags]

Last night was crazy, the alarms were going off at UK time 3-30.We could not sort it so phoned Baxter's. They phoned us from America to try and sort the machine. We are on 3x5000 bags plus a last fill of extraneal. The first 2 bags  had emptied but the 3rd one would not fill the heater to carry on the fills. We were messing about for over three quarters of an hour, pressing this and that. In the end the guy gave up and bypassed the machine to empty my husband out, he was over filled from the previous bags. We had to close the cycler down and revert to a manual fill at 4.30 .We were lucky we had some green manual bags but had to wait for it to heat up. On sorting the machine this morning I noticed when I released the bag from the machine the fluid  ran out. What do you know it had been air locked. I phoned Baxter's and her retort was "Yes they some times do get an air lock in the cassette" Why the f*** are we not told this. Husband has had to do manuals all day to day, dreading to-night. End of moaning. Apart from that I have had a good day, went and did some retail shopping with the daughter.

[jeannea]

I don't know why Baxter isn't telling us things. I've been having trouble and I finally broke down and called to complain. Here the number is 800-4BAXTER. That is the place for product quality complaints. (Might be different in UK, check website) when I called the tech support line at night they told me there is a quality problem with the bags and Baxter is working on it. When it won't fill, I beat the hell out of the bag and then press on it with both forearms until it flows but it's not guaranteed to work. The quality line I originally left an angry message late at night after fighting with it for over an hour and told them I would call the FDA. Someone from engineering called me back and asked lots of questions and told me to call again if I have more problems and they'll even have me send in the bad bags to test. They are having a serious quality problem and we're the ones who pay. My nurse is talking to the sales rep too. Make all the noise you can so they work on it.

[billybags]

jeannea, That was interesting to know, I will keep my eye on that. In the UK we are having supply problems.The main plant for fluid is in Ireland and they found the Vats that do the fluid had got for want of another word bugs. They have had to close the plant down in November to sort it so we have been having supplies shipped in from America,Canada and now frigging Turkey because it affects all EU countries. The packaging is horrendous, the box@s are so heavy they seem to cram 5 bags in  one box, I feel so sorry for the delivery guys. One nearly passed out on us last week. He had to make 25 trips up the stairs to our spare room.

[jeannea]

That's appalling. I hope they straighten it out soon. I used to work in the pharmaceutical industry so I know about the "bugs" that can stop production. But they usually try to fix it as soon as possible. I hope they work it out. Your poor delivery guy.