You would think that a central piece of equipment for dependable peritoneal dialysis would be the Liberty Cycler from Fresenius. I have not found this to be the case. In this regard, the Cycler, often as not, has a mind of its own. It does what it wants to do rather than what it’s supposed to do.
Last night was a case in point. I had two bags on the cycler, a six-liter IPN bag on the heater tray, and a 5-liter bag hanging on the left of the cart connected to the first “White” bag lead. I went through a normal setup until the Cycler ran checks for bags and repeatedly informed me it found no heater bag. Usually, this is caused by not having cracked the cone enough, and over and over again, I checked the cone being broken on both bags to no avail. I had to shut the cycler down, replace the bags and cassette, and start over. Of course, this was happening on a night when I had to get up early to go to Fort Worth for an appointment regarding my spinal cord stimulator.
After the reboot and replacement of bags and the cassette, everything worked as advertised. I’m pretty certain the cassette was to blame, as this has occurred before. It is from a freshly delivered box, and the first one out. This is one of those instances where a call to tech support would only have consumed precious time and not have resulted in a more harmonious result. In this regard, Fresensisus’ “tech support” is an oxymoron.
Typically, one has a love/hate relationship. Not here, only hate. What’s to love about an inanimate piece of junk that lets you down?
And yes, my visit to the doc about how my SCS is doing went well. Got “See you in a month!” guidance.
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