Writing in the August 5-6, 2023 edition of The Wall Street Journal Review p. C14, Ed Catmull, a co-founder of Pixar (along with Steve Jobs and Alvy Ray Smith in 1986), mused “Failure is a natural byproduct of innovation, and change is the only constant in every industry.” We are certainly seeing this in all things that touch us as peritoneal dialysis patients.
Take failure. From my perspective, the Fresenius Liberty Cycler is plagued by many “failures,” idiosyncrasies, and inconsistencies, and at times seems to have a personality of its own. I’d like to relate what took place last Sunday night.
As per usual I was on the fill cycle of the cycler by 2135, having installed the Cassette with my new and revised methodology. I awoke in the morning at 0900 with the dialysis treatment completed. On the surface this would appear to be a thumbs up but not so. Yes, I experienced no alarms, but… I usually put about 7900+ mL of fluid in, and have about a microfiltration rate of 6-900 mL. This means I am pulling a little less than one liter of fluid out of my body during dialysis in excess of what was put in. This is good in that this is the way we get rid of excess fluid by dialysis. During this dialysis cycle, 218 mL of fluid in excess of what was pumped in as part of dialysis remained. The bottom line my weight was up 2.2 lbs this morning. When I light off the Cycler tonight I expect it to immediately drain off excess fluid before starting its normal fill-dwell-drain X 4 cycles.
Change IS all around us regarding dialysis and those maladies that contribute to it. Take Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) for instance. While they have been around for some time, and have been improved over time, our governmental bureaucracies are still fumbling around with funding their obvious value to diabetic and dialysis patients. People and organizations resist change, even if it is good.
Newton’s first law of motion states “In the absence of any net force, an object in motion continues in motion in a straight line at a constant speed.” I intend to be and hope to be part of that force to aid and abet meaningful change in the dialysis world and worlds that intersect it on a Venn Diagram.
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