Cycler alarm goes off 4 times every night at drain cycle

[mspworker]

My 76 year old husband is new to at home peritoneal dialysis on the cycler every night. Every night, he is awakened by the alarm four times a night when the cycler reaches the drain portion of the treatment. He must shut the alarm, put his feet on the floor and move up and down before the drain cycle can begin. He is losing precious sleep every night. The doctor and nurse can't give him any advice that helps. He does take Miralax every night to keep his bowels moving. What advice does anyone have for him?

[Djangosmom]

I have the same problem Home PD last six months. At first it was fine, I slept all night. Then about a month into it, the alarms started going off at each drain, and I have PAIN that will wake me up out of a sound sleep.

I am working with my team, and they have reprogrammed my machine multiple times. First of all, you should ask you dialysis nurse about the Tidal mode. The machine leaves about 200 mL in your belly, and doesn't drain right down to nothing, except on the FINAL drain cycle. It makes it a little more gentle if the pain wakes you.

I have not had a full night's sleep in 4 months, and it's not good! Your doctor and nurse should be trying really hard to find out why the alarms are going off, and the state of your catheter. I am trying all different settings first, but if there's no improvement, then I am headed to the big city to have another surgeon evaluate the catheter placement. From what Ive read, the catheter may be too LONG. I'm going to get second opinion.

[Debrobris in reply to Djangosmom]

Oh my goodness. Thank you for the good information! I am woke up multiple times in the middle of the night with pain upon draining. It gets pretty bad sometimes. I am definitely going to ask my nurse about the tidal mode

[Djangosmom in reply to Debrobris]

Just an update.....since they've re-programmed my machine two weeks ago, nights have been SO much better. I may get an alarm on the first drain, but I'm usually awake for that one anyway. Otherwise, I am sleeping all night and getting up in the morning feeling refreshed! Definitely check out the Tidal settings. Good luck, and don't give up. It's not supposed to hurt!

[jazz--]

This happened to my son as well. His sleep was disturbed just about every night. On top of that, his tubing was twisting up causing him to untwist and hold it during the cycle due to pressure in the lines. Try watching the machine for hours at night and you will see it do some strange things. In our case, the times would jump, the machine would cut off drain time when there was still time left and my son was still draining.

He was on his fourth machine and still no solution. I spoke with two engineers from Purdue University, one of them a professor, and there may be problems with the machine. In our experience, no one would return our telephone calls to Baxter. All they would say is that they would send my concerns to their manager. We never received a ticket for a solution to the problems or did we receive a call back.

Last month, due to lack of sleep, my son made the decision to go back to the manual system. He is getting needed rest and is doing very well without the machine. For the safety of others using this equipment, I hope the company will look into some of the events that we experienced and assist patients instead of letting the machine continue to operate with seeming flaws for some patients.

[Jayhawker in reply to jazz--]

It sounds like you have used the Baxter cyclers. Have you tried any of the Fresenius cyclers? I’m curious if they have similar issues.

Jayhawker

[Djangosmom in reply to Jayhawker]

I use a Fresenius cycler, so they can have the same problem, howwever i have nothing but positive thingss to say about their customer service.

[Jayhawker in reply to Djangosmom]

Thanks for sharing this opinion; I’m exploring options right now as I guess I get a choice at my dialysis center. I’m still not on dialysis now nearly 3 years in Stage v.

Jayhawker

[Debrobris in reply to Jayhawker]

I use freesinius cycler and have no issues as such

[PracBob]

I'm having the end problem. Laxatives help a little. I'll soon be talking with the surgeon to see if they can make any changes that might help. I'm getting very little sleep.

[mspworker in reply to PracBob]

Same here. Let me know what your surgeon recommends. All the cycler company does is send us new cyclers. We are on number 6 right now and it is going back today due to screen light issues.

[PracBob]

I will let you know. I know my problem is within me and not in the cycler because draining is painful and speeds up of I wiggle around a lot. Also, I drain very slowly into a bag. Mostly, I'm hoping I don't have to go back to HD. I feel mooch better using PD and my kidneys have improved a bit.

[Toni20201]

I have used Fresenius cycler for over 5 years. I havent had many problems with it. When I first started pd I set alarms off every night but soon foumd out that is I lay on my left side to drain and fill then I dont set off alarms and I dont have the pain. Ive trained myself to sleep on my side. You may try sleep on one side or the other to see if this would help.

[Annandale1]

My husband was on PD for 9 months and had the same issue. It all started 3 months ago. We both work a 12 hour shift ..6 days a week..having your own business. We were both losing sleep. He was feeling bloated and short breathed. Took him to ER and discovered that he had a leaky catheter.

Its has been 3 weeks now since he had to switch to HD 3 times a week and feeling fine. Hoping your problem could be solved. I really feel your pain.

[Kap4]

I was on the machine and had pain every time I drained through the night. Made the decision to start doing manual exchanges 5 times a day. Much better for me. Although it's a little inconvenient to make sure I do it every 4 hours, it only takes about 20 minutes each time. So the total amount of time is much better than being hooked up to a machine for that length of time! Been doing this over 6 years now...

[Hidden in reply to Kap4]

I was on manual pd 4 times a day, I got trained up for the machine and was about to have my final training session and be given the all clear to start nightly pd, then the phone call came, We have a Kidney for you and everything changed, I was on pd for 6 months and the kidney transplant list for 3 months.

[Frankie24]

Have PD nurse adjust settings on cycles