Week Twenty.....Machine failure

Last Thursday (I think it was Thursday.  Sleep deprivation makes it tough to tell.), the dialysis machine announced as I was setting it up that it had failed "The Bubble Valve Test."  It advised me to push the "Okay" button to acknowledge this failure and to re-run the test.  I can tell by the sound of the machine that SOMETHING isn't working because instead of groaning and creaking it's peeing into the drainage container (oh, this machine is quiet, but it still makes plenty of identifiable sounds LOL).  I got the same message and instruction several times over without having the machine make any reasonable suggestion for how many times failing The Bubble Valve Test made it a bad idea to proceed.  But about the fifth time, I figured it was time to pull the cartridge and set up again.  Well, it seemed like time to ME, but the machine would not permit me to pull the cartridge.  So  I powered off, started over, and it still would not allow me to remove the cartridge, and I still couldn't pass The Test.

Time to call hubby.  He, of course, repeats all of the above.  While he is frustrating himself, I find the manual, find the list of failure warnings, and confirm that warning 30.1 IS indeed what it claims to be. Sadly, however, the manual also does not give any advice about what to about said warning. 

Time to call tech support (they are starting to get to know us LOL).  We discuss the problem, while hubby continues to randomly fiddle with the machine.  Since the thing is peeing instead of setting itself up, he clamps the pee tube (yellow clamp, get it?) and suddenly we are no longer failing The Test. 

Tech support is mystified, both by the failure of The Test and the inexplicable resolution of the problem.  They recommend that we remove the cartridge (which we now CAN do now that we've PASSED The Test).  Well, this goes on, and on, and on and finally, after burning through several days' worth of supplies, Tech support decides that the machine just isn't working.  So they offer to FedEx us a new one by morning, with supplies to go with it.

Hubby and I burst into laughter.  Tech support is utterly dumbfounded.  You see, they don't really know where we are, and they are in Wisconsin.  But we here in the Northeast are in the Flood that floated Noah, and we can't even get to a store for a loaf of bread, let alone a truck with a pallet full of supplies.  The National Guard is evacuating our kids from their low-lying homes, the airport is closed, and there isn't an open bridge anywhere in our two-river city.

Nothing daunted, Tech support says that if worse comes to worst, the National Guard will help them.  Dang, I feel kinda important!

It took a day and a half instead of half a day. But they did it. And I finally figured out what the bubble valves were.

DeeDee