There is a thread on Facebook from Peritoneal Dialysis patients citing drain problems where they drain their PD drain line. Most problems occur in showers, bathtubs, or sinks and NOT toilets. The problem is manifested by a slowdown in drainage and even blockage. Plumbers have reported a gelatine mass in the drains thus impacted. Also described as a glob of stuff.
For the record, we drain our Cycler into our shower drain and are starting to see drainage slowing down indicating blockage. I quizzed my local dialysis nurse about this and was told she had not experienced it as of yet.
It is conjectured that the stoppage is caused by the chemical compounds in the solution itself, coupled with an ideal growing climate in the drains. Keep in mind that the effluent coming out of the PD catheter is basically a sugar solution now mixed with many of the chemicals found in urine. The whole PD game is to act in place of our kidneys so we would expect much of the “stuff” removed to be common to the urine it replaces. So we have dextrose and urine-based whatever plus warmth in the shower drain equals virus or whatever growth in the drain. Not too hard to imagine is it?
The solution most offered in the Facebook thread was to generously apply a bleach solution to the drain. Respondents did not agree on either the frequency or potency of the bleach but most often cited a 1% solution, 1/2 a cup, ranging from daily to weekly administration.
Those who dumped into their toilets did not report having drainage problems. This is most likely the result of two things: 1. The drain pipes for the toilet are larger than the pipes for the other drains, and 2. The force of water during a flush is much greater than the more gentle drains in sinks, showers, or tubs.
So now along with cleaning our shower head once a month (don’t ask why, it’s a Fresenius inspection thing), we have now added maintenance on our drains. Maybe you should too? By the way, the picture at lead IS NOT OF OUR SHOWER DRAIN! It is from Bing Illustrator.
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