Patient Line Block!

We,re moving right along with the dialysis training...closing in on the end of the time at the dialysis center and getting ready to start the home dialysis treatments. Supplies will start being delivered on Thursday...the dialysis machine and the cart that it sits on. Then Friday we are to get a partial shipment. This coming Tuesday is the day for the BIG shipment. Monday is the last day for training at the center. We will be there for the morning. Then our nurse will come by the house to help us get set up. I think that his first complete treatment will be Monday night if things go as planned. I got everything set up fairly easily this morning. And things went well until we got a message that the patient line was blocked. I knew to check for kinks, etc. it took both the nurse and myself to finally get it going again. And, things went along fine until the final drain. I realized that it was progressing just too slowly. You can track the amount of fluid drained on the screen. Usually at the first it is very free flowing and comes out quickly...not this time...it went v e r y s l o w l y until it, again, gave the warning that the patient line was blocked. I worked for a while looking for kinks...after the third or forth warning, I called in the nurse. We had Woody stand up and wiggle around a bit, but to no avail. We finally decided that it was time to abandon the machine and hook up for a manual drain. We did get one notice about the cartridge and that made the nurse decide that it was a problem with the cartridge and not Woody's line or the machine. We got the manual drain going and it drained quickly. Once that got going the nurse opened up the machine to find the cartridge leaking all over the place. I'm glad that this happened to me the first time while we were there so I had some backup to figure out what to do. I had just asked the nurse this morning what to do if electricity went out in middle of treatment and his answer was switch to manual dialysis. So I knew the direction to go. The nurse said that he tries to make the machine malfunction one time during training...he just didn't have to make it do it this time. Machine malfunctioned all on its own! I guess I have passed. I signed off on a whole lot of things today as had the nurse. Looks like we just have tomorrow, Friday, and Monday left to train at the center. Today is our first grandchild's birthday. Happy 27th birthday to Erin Elizabeth! My how time flies!!! It seems strange to realize that we have been grandparents for over a quarter of a century!!! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!