Hey Beachy, have you heard the ‘good news’ ? - The High Court* has ruled that BiBags cannot be used on the Fresenius!! :shock: :evil:
I spoke to male nurse Rodney this a.m. & he says they have contacted both cos. to ask for an exemption for nocturnals, the only response so far having been “they’ll just have to wake up & change bottles” - yeah right -THREE or FOUR times…if this turns out to be the case, I shall be reverting to daytime again. Glad I’m still doing the 3-day week… :? :roll:
*apparently Aus. is the only place where the patent is still in place, Rodney tells me, and for the rest of the planet it’s O.K. to use BiBags.
I guess I should’ve kept my mouth shut, when I posted about people having to mix up dialysate themselves…
And I shouldn’t have posted a pic and talked about how lovely and simple the Bibag setup was. More storage hassles OH NO!!! Let us hope if this nightmare scenario eventuates the powers that be will go for the Canadian model with bicarb and not the US one or it wil be bye bye Nocturnal for me. :o
Fresenius is an international company and machines that it and other international dialysis suppliers make are not always available everywhere.
I found a link to a press release from 6/05 that says that the 5008 will be rolled out in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. It didn’t mention when the machine will be available in the U.S. or even if it will be available here.
I was told using mixed bicarb was a much greater bacterial risk than the BiBag. Because we live in the sub-tropics, Beachy, they assume higher risk factors. So we are unliekyl to get 8liter bottles. THye quoted me the 1.5-2 per acid bottle at the same size (5l). YOU cannot crack them in advance either, for the same bacterial reasons, so I don’t think we’ll have big ones like Pierre, that can last us all night :roll:
…is this “goodbye nocturnal” time here? :?
Bear, When you say the mixed bicarb has a higher bacterial rate are you talking the bicarb Pierre uses mixed. Or are you talking about like what we in the U.S. do mix a carton of bicarb to RO water.
I think Bear is talking about potential problems when you have a bottle open to the humid atmosphere for 8 hours+
Bear, have sent you an email with draft of a letter I am hoping all Aussie home patients with Fresenius Bibags might whizz off to pollies, Fresenius, Gambro and even high court dude.
:shock:
That’s not a problem at all. For one thing, the jug is not just open to the air. For us home patients, they attach a jug cap to the wand and then we screw the wands onto the jug in place of the original cap. But even so, those jugs can be open to air, as they are in any dialysis centre which doesn’t have a central dialysate system. In that case, they just stick the wand in. Once open, it’s good for 12 hours - not that I would ever use one that’s been open.
Pierre
Bear
Just got my first delivery of the dreaded Part B bottles! Yikes now can’t get into the laundry to swing the cat!
They are apparently still trying to work something out for home patients. Still have around 6 months supply of Bibags stored but if this keeps up I will be able to build a new house out of all these empty bottles and boxes. Fill them up with sand and paint them a fashionable purple. Nice! :twisted:
If this bibag problem is going to mean you dont want to do nocturnal, then why not train on a Gambro?? We get the big bicarts that last all night. Gambro machines are easy peasy!!!
When I used the Fresenius we were give a 10L jug for bicarb and acid. I don’t see why you can just find one somewhere and use them, just pour from the smaller bottles into the jug.
The bicarb jug needs to be rinsed nightly with r/o water, and put a tiny bit of bleach in it once a week and rinse until the dipstick shows no bleach.
Whoops sorry Amba!
Believe it or not I have been knee deep (literally) in making flippin’ rows and rows of ruffles for a flamenco type dress for my new Samba costume. Yee haa .We are leading the Lismore Lantern Parade this Sat night (as you are nearly local I am sure you know where I mean (; ) I ain’t much of a seamstress and this is driving me nuts!
Those Gambro beasties (as Bear called em) don’t fit neatly into my wardrobe like the Freni and as Cathy says we can always decant into bigger bottles.
However, there is a HUGE difference in storage space needed for one little plastic bibag weighing 950g and 10 kgs of bottles :?
I still am hoping they agree to let home patients here go with the Bibags
Cheers
I lived in Lismore for about 5 years beachy. For some reason I do really miss living there. But I am happy where I am now.
So is it a must that you put the machine in the cupboard? I didnt give a rats where mine went, Ive got a whole room dedicated to it, so when Im not on the machine, I can just close the door and forget about it for a day.
Well, yet again, I was able to order bibags - I’ve got 3 boxes @ home & ordered another 3. So…18 weeks covered so far.
I’ve heard arumor that the ‘special dispensation’ has come thru…but I haven’t talked to the clinic mob to confirm that yet. :?
The water tester lady was around crack-o’-dawn yesterday. Hopefully, with the cooler weather, the baco levels will be well down… (?)
Hey there Bear
Just heard from the horses mouth, current home patients can keep using those lovely bibags! Beauty mate, what a relief.This calls for a celebration! Gonna break out a nice Aussie champers for lunch!
Do feel sorry for new ones training for Nocturnal though…
Hi Beachy,
who is the horses mouth?. I have just contacted Fresenius ( product manager) to find out if gambo is allowing them use the bibags for home patients,just waiting for a call back.
hope this is going to be good news.
cheers Queenie.
:roll:
