Hi all, I had a somewhat OK weekend, and it would have been a lot better, if I didn't have to deal with my cycler, and this new feature. Now, I know some of my bloggers, may not know where I am coming from on this, so I will relate this PD issue to my PD bloggers. Last year, in June, 2011, I had to return to hemo temporary, to have an umblical hernia repaired, in which I developed in my sixth year of PD, it wasn't giving me any pain or discomfort, until my fourth year of living with this hernia, it began to wreak havoc on my body, that I had to seek medical attention from ER, three times, to have the hernia pushed back in., to do this, I had to endure an IV injection of morphine, because I was warned by the ER doctor, that the pain would be excruiating, and the morphine would very much lessen the pain after the procedure. Well that wasn't the only thing that began to occur, I developed a bowel obstruction as well, which resulted in my neph, finally deciding that I need to have this hernia repaired as soon as possible, so of course, to do this, I had to return to hemo temporarily, well I return to hemo in good faith, in the hopes of having this hernia repaired in a few months, but that didn't transpire right away, only a few weeks after starting hemo with the help of a perm chest catherer (in which I was surpised as well as my neph, that I was able to have a catherer in place in the upper part of my body, after all these years, because in the past, I have had to have catherers placed in my groin, which was in 2006). Well anyway, during the first month of hemo, I began to collect fluid around my lungs, and the twisted thing about all this, is that I didn't even have any fluid collecting around my lungs while on PD, go figure! I do believe it was that chest catherer, that caused this to happen. It got so severe, that I needed to have the procedure, where they insert a needle in my back, and drain as much of the fluid as they can, but they are allowed to only do one side at a time, and my left side was more diminished. However, I was beginning to have issues with having to sleep upon two or three pillows, just to get a restful night of sleep, and I remember these days, when I was on hemo during my first ten year run with dialysis. Well anyway, finally a few weeks before Christmas, my hernia surgery was finally scheduled. I remained on Hemo for about two weeks, and during that time, my chest catherer began to give me trouble, I wasn't dialyzed as well, so my treatment was stopped in the first hour, by my neph, who was there for my monthly checkup. I immediately returned to PD, to see the PD nurse, and discuss my return to PD, first, it was decided that I do nothing but the 10 hr. cycler treatment, and not to do any midday manual exchanges nor a last fill on the cycler, so I didn't have to dwell, my neph decided this, would lessen the risk of a re occuring hernia. It has been six months now, and I am proud to say, I am hernia free, this PD prescription is working out fine for me, but I do have a beef about the replacement cycler that was delivered, for some reason, Baxter has added this so call, feature that simply annoys me, when I am in my last drain of my five exchange cycler treatment, it would alarm displaying Low UF, and I would take my tubing and place it above my head, so that the drain would flow more freely, but I have to repeat this step, at least three times, before the therapy displays - End of Therapy. I brought this to the attention of my PD nurse, and she gave me instructions on how to turn the alarm off, but that didn't solve the Low UF isssue, she then tells me to raise my cycler up some, and that didn't remedy it either. Now, I am so fed up with this, because it is truly cramping my style, I have missed church twice last month, and also if I have planned something with my husband and daughter, sometime I have to decline from joining them, because my last drain is taking way too long to complete. I could just BYPASS, but that will defeat the purpose, because I did it once, and I had to cope during the day with a fluid overload, my ankles and face were swollen as well, so I decided not to do that again, because I am suppose to be empty during the day, not that usual dwelling of the dialysate, like before, and I God knows, I don't want to endure another one of those umbilical hernia, right! Gee! I have enough health issues as it is (lol). I am scheduled for monthly labs on friday, and you best believe I will address this at that time to my PD nurse, because something needs to be done about this. I have been on PD for over ten years, and have never had to deal with this particular feature before, and I have done just fine, most of the time, with my treatment. I think if they were going to introduce some new feature to this new, (excuse me), not new machine, just recycle cyclers (ha ha!), then they should have gave us veteran PD patient, the choice of whether we wanted this new feature or not, because in my opinion, I don't need this feature, I know my body in and out, and I am aware that my PD prescription may change from time to time, because the b/p and weight changes from time to time, indicating that a change needs to be made to the PD prescription. Well I have rant, rave and complained enough, if any of you other veteran PD patients, (like myself) or experiencing something similar, please chime in with your thoughts, and concerns about this matter. That is it for now, until my next blog, stay complaint with the diet, treatment and medication regimen as best as you can to help in managing continued good health with Hemo, PD or HHD. take care and all the best to my followers.
Glo
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