Portable dialysis machine for traveling

[KraigG]

This looks like a good option for traveling. How does it compare, in size, to the NxStage?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903454504576489293290757586.html

[Riki]

It's for peritoneal dialysis.  Nxstage is for hemo.  I got that in the first paragraph.  Let me read the rest of the article.  I may add more after I've read it

[KraigG]

I keep hearing differing stories about which one is better - PD or HD. I've heard of HD patients living for 30 or more years - how about PD patients?

[Riki]

I've done both.  I prefer PD.  I found it much more freeing, as I could schedule the treatment around my life, rather than with HD, you schedule your life around the treatment.  I used the Baxter Home Choice Pro, which is similar is size and weight to older style desktop computers and fits in a suitcase, if you choose to travel with it.

I admit that I did carry more fluid with PD than I do HD, but it did not suck the energy out of me like HD does.

This particular device does look promising, though. It appears to clean the fluid that comes out of you of the toxins, then puts that fluid back in, and you change the cassette once a month.  It's kinda like a Brita filter. *L*

[KraigG]

I don't mind the HD that much. I start at 7pm, and I'm done by 10:30pm. I just sit there and watch TV, and it's only 3 days a week. I'd be sitting home watching TV anyway at that time.

I've heard that if you do PD at home, you need to have someone there. True? Which one is actually better for you, in the long run?

I live alone. No one to help hook up, set the machine, correct problems should they arise.

[Riki]

I don't think it's necessary to have a partner.  I needed one, because of my vision issues, and since I lived with my parents when I started, I had my mom.  The only thing I didn't do, because I was afraid of screwing it up, was mixing antibiotics.  Mom trained in that.  It's not hard to set up a machine or connect to it.  Connecting is basically screwing one line to another.  You have a central line for hemo, it's basically the same deal.  The bags of peritoneal solution connect the same way, and setting up the machine takes about 5 minutes.

The unit I go to (and it's the biggest in my province) doesn't have a 3rd shift.  I'm on the afternoon shift.  My time is 1:30pm, I'm generally on by 2pm, and barring any complications, I'm generally finished holding and out the door by 6:30pm.  It's kind of hard to go to school, or get a job when you can't work 3 days per week.  Everything I do is done on Tuesdays, Thursdays, or on weekends

[KraigG]

I hear that. I'm on the 4th shift now, but they're doing away with that soon, since a new center opened up 5 miles away, and it's closer for a lot of the patients.
I'm going to have to move to the 3rd shift, which means going in around 3 or 4. There go my (almost) free days MWF.

My machine at the center beeps, and the techs are always checking things every 10 min, and adding fluids, solutions, and God knows what else. I'd hate to have to do that myself. Just glad there are folks out there that do it for a living.

[Riki]

I've never seen anyone add any fluids, unless those who had fluid removed had to have it all replaced.  There's a couple that I know have that done, and that's just saline.  When we have medications, and I think just about everyone one of us on the unit has iron at least once every 2 weeks, it's done with a separate IV pump, and that's connected to a spare connector on the tubing set.  It goes into the blood that's coming out of the dialyzer and is going back into us

[KraigG]

At my center, they're always adding, from big jugs, vinegar, bicarb, and who knows what else. One night, they had to let me go home early, because they didn't have enough bicarb to finish.
And when they take too much fluid out? My blood pressure drops, I cramp, I vomit, and they have to give me saline. It's happened a couple of times. I now err on the side of taking out too little, rather than trying to adhere to my dry weight.

So yes, given what I know about dialysis, I'd hate to do it alone. Scary.

[Riki]

Your centre must run a different type of machine.  The machines used at my centre have jugs connected to lines on the back of the machine for bleach and vinegar, and there's a cartridge that's used for bicarb, and it's changed with each patient.

My blood pressure drops if I have too much fluid off too.  I've passed out a few times.  I've been lucky that in the 3 years that I've been on HD, I've only cramped once, and that was due to a mistake made by the nurse that put me on. My goal was set to 3.8kgs, when it was supposed to be 2.8kgs.  I can only tolerate taking 3kgs off.  The mistake wasn't discovered until after I cramped, and at that point, they'd already taken 3.2kgs.  I had a bit replaced that day.  I think they gave me something extra to drink that day too

[KraigG]

We weigh ourselves each time, before and after. Most of the weekdays, I need to take off around 2 kgs. Sometimes 2.3, sometimes 1.8. It always varies. Then the techs add .4kgs for the solution, and that's when I have trouble.

How, they just remove what I tell them, and there's been no problems.