Good article that talks about the issue of drain pain
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
It seems unfortunate that the new Baxter machine has mandatory initial drain.
I am still trying to figure out how to condition myself so that some day I can use this cycler.
Do you have the choice to use a different cycler machine, eg, a Fresenius machine? I’m wondering if they are better with the drain pain.
I’m STILL not on dialysis. So I’m still awaiting my turn with all of this. I’m hoping I’ll be able to use the sleep safe machine (Fresenius) when I do start. I have an appointment the second week of November with the dialysis clinic I’ll go to for PD training. My nephrologist’s Nurse practitioner said it would be good for me to schedule a visit with the dialysis center just to check everything out. I’m planning to ask about options fir cycler machines when I get there.
While I’m not anxious to rush into dialysis. I am tired of not feeling well much of the time. I’ll see my nephrologist’s nurse practitioner again on Dec 2nd. My creatinine has actually shown a modest improvement since I’ve shifted to a vegetarian diet. So I’m not sure what I’ll hear in my next appointment. It’s possible that I’m not getting enough high value plant protein with this change in my diet. If so, that might be contributing to me not feeling as good on a daily basis. But that’s something I can change with some help from a renal dietician.
Anyway, I’m curious to know if you have a choice regarding cycler machine you use and, if so, whether shifting to a different cycler might help resolve the drain pain you’re experiencing.
Jayhawker
Hi Jayhawker
It seems not but I will ask. Let me know what u find out. Fresenius and Baxter have different transfer sets which I didn’t know but might be good to figure out which cycler u r interested to go on before u get the catheter surgery.
How does the Fresenius sleep safe work?
It supposedly has a gentler full and drain process plus it’s supposed to be much easier to customize got individual patients than the other cyclers. Also their connect system would clearly be much less likely to promote infection that that used by Baxter. It’s this later issue that has me must interested in any of the Fresenius cyclers. They all use the be safe connection system.
Of course, exit site maintenance and appropriate hygiene throughout the process is still critical.
I didn’t think the cycler I’d be using would have any baring on the PD surgery though; but I could easily be wrong on that🐶
Jayhawker
I use the Baxter cycles and only have occasional drain pain. As long as I’m not costipated everything is cool. Whil in the hospital for something else they used a frizenus machine on me. Work fine on my catheter so you can change later.
Hi G1957
When you were on manual before you got on cycler, were you able to drain everything without drain pain? I'm still at stage where I have to stop before it completely stops flowing due to drain pain. If you had same issue on manual before, what did you do to make your body 'get used to it'?
I never had much pain till I got about drained. And it got better with time
When I did manual, always pain. Then ended up in hospital due to the fluid going to my lungs. They did the cycler and it never hurt. So I got the cycler and it went pretty well til this last week when the pain has been awful on drain and fill. I have Baxter. Something else in the hospital though. I think it’s pretty gentle, just me and my weird pains.
In my opinion the newer Baxter machine (the Amia) has several things that could be improved on. When you first start out, in my opinion, you are guaranteed to have a lot of drain pan because it is trying to pull fluid out of your stomach that is not there. I think that a good PD nurse would recognize this and would give you a manual fill first, so that there is something to be removed during the mandatory initial drain cycle. Now if you use extraneal (icodextrin) the day, the mandatory initial drain cycle makes sense. Because once you start nightly treatments you need to pull out the extraneal that has been dwelling in you belly all day long.
Amia PD Machine Issues
Cycler alarm goes off 4 times every night at drain cycle
different error on pd dialysis claria machine 
Sleep position and drain cycle alarm during PD
