Major fail at Cycler training

[curiousmind2019]

First attempt at the cycler at clinic today and complete disaster. I didn’t even get past the first phase of the initial drain. The machine kept pulling for more fluid and I had severe pinch. It would not stop cuz it thinks there’s more fluid while I cannot continue cuz I am in too much pain. We had to call it quits for now. So disappointing (and painful). :’-(

[LutherPDX]

We call that drain pain. It's common, certainly not a fail on your part or the machine's. For the majority of people, that's normal and will be greatly reduced over time. Mine hurt like an SOB, but now I rarely, if ever, get it and sleep right through 5 drain cycles per night. It's part of the reason you start in clinic.

P.S., PD is much much safer than hemo, I can't even think of what a true disaster would be, and I've had my share of mishaps. Seriously the worst that can happen is you stop that night's treatment, and contact your PD nurse in the morning. You aren't losing blood.

[curiousmind2019 in reply to LutherPDX]

Hi LutherPDX

How did you get pass it? My nurse has stopped the training as I can’t get pass the initial drain phase (the machine doesn’t have an option to skip, just option to stop treatment— I am on Baxter). And how did u get use to the pain? It’s so bad that I can’t rough it through til the machine would stop.

[LutherPDX in reply to curiousmind2019]

The good thing is, there is nothing you need to do, your body just accommodates being filled and drained over time.

I'm guessing you're on a HomeChoicee or HomeChoice pro. Those are Baxter's older machines. And I thought for sure there was a way to cancel and go on the next step.

Baxters newer machine calle the Amia does have a way to cancel initial drain after a set number of minutes. Your PD nurse has control over the number of minutes to try.

At the very least, she should just do a manual fill, THEN the initial drain phase actually has fluid to pull.

[curiousmind2019 in reply to LutherPDX]

I'm on the Amia. So for the initial drain, I would have to tolerate the pain for the number of minutes that the nurse set it to? (I don't see the setting, but I will ask next time.)

If I simply close the transfer set when I feel the pinch at the initial drain, will that make the machine think i have no fluid and move on (instead of keep sucking)?

[LutherPDX in reply to curiousmind2019]

I think the setting reads something like "Minimum initial drain time."

IF you were to clamp off, it's been my experience is the machine will shortly stop and the alert message will say it detected a occlusion on the patient line. The occlusion alert is triggered when it it can't get fluid in or out - like if you forgot to unclamp the line is kinked. I'm famous for rolling over the patient line and get alerts because of it.

[mhawk123]

I do hope for better success with next training session with the cycler. Have peace that this is a process as our body get used to this machine.

[SadMad]

So sorry to hear. Hope you get things worked out.