I need to take an overnight trip soon, the first time in the 2 years I have been on PD, and I want to know how to best manage a minimal exchange for that day (I will be back home the following night). Please don’t tell me to take the machine, there is no way I am going to try and travel with that thing, let alone TSA’s abuse of everyone’s rights.
My normal routine is nightly 4 cycler exchanges with 1/1/2 percent solution then 2L of Icodextrin to last the day. I drain an average of 250mL each time although this widely varies (yet I still urinate as well). Some days are negative, other days >500. When I use a greater concentration mix, the next day is always negative as well. [I understand that even a negative exchange day serves to remove wastes]
Rather then try and revert to manual exchange for a day, I was thinking to use some 2 1/2 solution the day before (ensuring a better then average drain) then simply take one 2L bag of Icodextrin for a manual exchange that night. This has the convenience of less pre-trip shipping, although I will need to get the right bag/connections for a manual exchange.
There are no reasons that one cannot travel with the cycler. You need to order the solutions to be delivered to your hotel and then travel with cycler and other suplies. The cycler can be carry-on. Sure, TSA may open the cycler bag to check it, so it would take about 3 or 4 minutes more to go thorugh the security. It is not a big deal. In 2009, my cycler had about 30,000 miles on it. One of good things for PD is easy for travel. We should not be feared to travel with the cycler.
[QUOTE=Unregistered;19138]I need to take an overnight trip soon, the first time in the 2 years I have been on PD, and I want to know how to best manage a minimal exchange for that day (I will be back home the following night). Please don’t tell me to take the machine, there is no way I am going to try and travel with that thing, let alone TSA’s abuse of everyone’s rights.
My normal routine is nightly 4 cycler exchanges with 1/1/2 percent solution then 2L of Icodextrin to last the day. I drain an average of 250mL each time although this widely varies (yet I still urinate as well). Some days are negative, other days >500. When I use a greater concentration mix, the next day is always negative as well. [I understand that even a negative exchange day serves to remove wastes]
Rather then try and revert to manual exchange for a day, I was thinking to use some 2 1/2 solution the day before (ensuring a better then average drain) then simply take one 2L bag of Icodextrin for a manual exchange that night. This has the convenience of less pre-trip shipping, although I will need to get the right bag/connections for a manual exchange.
Any thoughts on how to best approach this. DCK[/QUOTE]
Whenever my husband went away for the weekend, he would do just manual exchanges – 4 a day - at breakfast, lunch, dinner and just before bedtime. If you’re just going to be away for one day, and you don’t have any manual bags other than the Icodextrin one, then just the Icodextrin at night should be okay. We always ordered a few twin bags for whenever we were going away for a day or two and didn’t want to take the cycler with us and never had any problems. Hope this helps.
PD patients have been known to skip CAPD exchanges or a day of CCPD, but the risk of hospitalization and death increases when you skip treatments. Dialysis does not remove the same amount of toxins as healthy kidneys. When you’re out of town on a trip, it’s easy to want to take a vacation from dialysis, but little indiscretions can sneak up on you and cause problems later even if you don’t experience problems right away. Check out this article for traveling with a PD cycler: http://www.homedialysis.org/files/pdf/resources/tom/200606.pdf