pd dialysis bags

[Beachgirl32]

I had an appointment today at my dialysis center for labs. They also wanted to prepare us for hurricane season if we lose power . I found it interesting they said if the room temperature where you store your pd dialysis bag get above 77 they are no good that bacteria can grow in it. And you can’t use them. Seem like such a waste . I just hope I never experience it.

Another thing they taught today was when your manual bag’s expired don’t toss them away they are great for the garden will make your tomatoes plants grow like crazy. I found that interesting .

Has anyone else center ever said about if the temperature get above 77 your bags are no good ? I’m just curious and has anyone else ver experienced this ?

[bumblebee_tuna]

Yes I also heard the recommendation to water plants with unused solution bags. I actually looked it up and it looks true but the recommendation is not to water with sugar too often because it deplete the soil of nitrogen - or something like that .... (I don't have a green thumb)

[Darlenia]

Interesting. We live in Virginia and always kept our PD solutions in our garage - we never checked the temps in our garage but it can reach 100F outdoors in the summer and can go below freezing outside in the winter. Two different PD nurses inspected our arrangement and didn't object to what we were doing. Baxter also delivered our boxes in a big non-temperature controlled box truck during high heat and cold days. My hubby's dialysis didn't suffer - his labs were stable. I wonder if higher temps might make the bags leak as liquid expands? And maybe that might promote bacteria? Hmmm. Anyway, when our solutions expired, I emptied them on my plants. They did okay with that for a time, but eventually I noticed that their leaves would show a bit of stress (yellowing around the edges)...not sure because I overwatered or if the sugar solution washed away other minerals. So I stopped and simply poured it down a rocky embankment. I just want to add that we had a number of power outages when hubby was on PD. Our PD nurse at the time told us not to worry about missing an evening if necessary. She said that was the beauty of PD - it's done so regularly that missing a night isn't the end of the world. She also said PD folks taking over night flights often wind up having to skip an evening too. It calmed our nerves a lot.

[Beachgirl32 in reply to Darlenia]

Darlenia interesting that you kept your in the garage I think I read a few others do too . So that why I was question it . It wasn’t my pd nurse who told me this it was two helpers they had that day they both were pd nurses .I also live in Virginia and I have seen my share of power outages so far I been lucky none since I started. I know my mom had to heat her bags on the dashboard of the car when we had a bad ice storm and was with out power for three days. They told me to do manual if the power goes out.That interesting your pd nurse said one about skipping a night I can see that especially like on a long flight .

[Darlenia in reply to Beachgirl32]

Yep...no one questioned it. Two different PD nurses, two different homes (we moved), two different garages (attached and detached), and two different clinics. And the Baxter delivery crews stacked everything, knew the layout - and never said we were doing things wrong. For sure, the best choice is to do manuals and not skip a session - I think the nurse assumed that maybe with "lights out" that even manuals might be hard to set up during a wild, stormy night. Our dialysis center also lost power that time - that's when we started to ask a lot of questions.

[RonZone in reply to Darlenia]

I would love to be able to keep my solution in my garage instead of in my bedroom, but here in Alabama, it can get really hot in the garage, so my PD nurse said absolutely not (dang it). Maybe I'll move to Virginia one of these days!

[Darlenia in reply to RonZone]

Lol...Alabama is awfully hot! We foolishly spent a summer vacation in your neighboring state. Big mistake! We could hardly catch our breath - even the birds were panting for breath. I'm sure your solutions will burst if stored in a garage. And, yep, we will only vacation in the winter now in the deep south. Lesson learned!

[RonZone]

No green thumb here, so I just tossed my left over manual solution down the drain. I can't even keep a plastic plant alive

[Darlenia in reply to RonZone]

Haha..understand completely.