Starting CAPD in a few weeks - how big are the deliveries??

JanA · Post by **JanA** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:02 pm

Hi THere
Starting CAPD looks like it is about to become a reality for my husband - he had his Tenckhoff fitted a few weeks ago and is likely to start in august.
We thought to use our spare bedroom - take down the bed to make room for the fluids , but we have no idea how much room these will take. Can anyone tell me how many boxes are usually delivered in one go and how big are the boxes? If we were to go away for a week how much would we need to take -size wise?
We're both feeling a bit apprehensive about the change of lifestyle - fitting it in with work etc. although work (Social Services) have been pretty helpful about it.
Any info would be gratefully received.
Thanks

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:39 pm

Hi Jan,
When I was on CAPD they did monthly delieveries and that was quite a number of boxes. the spare room sounds like a good place to keep the boxes, and the delivery bloke will put them there for you. (mine used to go in the garage and my dad moved them to the spare room.)
I hope that all goes well for your husband and the change in lifestyle isnt too great.
We're always here to help.
Love
Andy x

JanA · Post by **JanA** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:52 pm

THanks for that - I note that you are in South Wales too!
Did you always use the same room to dialyse? We were thinking to also use the spare room, if there's any room left with all the boxes - as it's close to the bathroom.

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:58 pm

I did CAPD whereever it suited me, i was mainly on APD (just over night) but when i did it during the day i did it where ever, a room in school, downstairs watching the tv, on the computer, in my room, and my friend has done it in the car. Oh yea ive also done it in the middle of a field (actually i did it for a week in a field)

are you from south Wales? Where about?
x

JanA · Post by **JanA** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:05 pm

We're from Abergavenny - have been travelling down to the Heath quite a lot lately. That's good to hear about the flexibility. Hwo do you find the APD in comaprison? - that was suggested to my husband as an option once he's got used to dialysis.

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:21 pm

I preferred APD to CAPD because of my lifestyle, i was still in school so it made sense to go to bed early and get up at aroudn the same time.

i used to spend a lot of my time in abergavenny, an ex boyfriend of mine lived there.

bigbuzzard · Post by **bigbuzzard** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 10:15 pm

Hi Jan

I get CAPD/APD stuff delivered by Baxter. The fluid boxes are about 18x12x6 inches. Each one weighs 10Kg - containing either 2x5 litre or 5x2 litre bags. If you're on CAPD, and using 4x2l bags a day, thats 4 boxes every 5 days, or 24 boxes a month.

If you do APD and use 12 Litres per night, and another bag in the day (that's my regime) then its more like 42 boxes per month. Then there's another big box for the PD sets and another for the drain bags, and another for all the bits and pieces.

THe fluid boxes can stack about 10 high - so a month's worth is like a solid wall of boxes.

They either deliver every 2 weeks, or every month - depending on how much space you have. The delivery guys are usually really good - they'll lug the boxes to whereever you want them - and stack them with the same kind together with the labels visible. Being a little bit anal about this is really worth all the humping around you don't need to do later.

To go away for a week, that's 56kg of fluid in 6 boxes. Easy enough to chuck in the boot of a car, but not much fun to carry. I once took 4 days worth of bags in a big wheelie suitcase on the train - that was hard!

I do APD - because doing 4 exchanges a day would seem like a pain - and it's easy to switch to CAPD whenever necessary. I still have to do 1 CAPD exhange during the day, and that's enough. It's easy to head out for the day carrying one 2l bag in my bag, and if I miss one sometimes, it's no big deal. I've made a point of trying to do my exchanges whereever I happen to be - some people don't like doing them in public (there was a long thread about this here once) - it's up to you (or your husband).

I don't notice any difference in how I feel when switching between APD and CAPD. APD took a week or so to get used to - spent the first few days waking up a lot, but now, neither I nor my partner really notice it. I think my snoring drowns out any noise the machine makes

I'll stop there! Good luck

Andy

Mother · Post by **Mother** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:48 am

We store ours in a garage. If you have outside space I think a shed or garage is easier as the boxes are bulky and heavy - otherwise a spare room will be fine and at least the delivery men will carry them upstairs for you.

When we go away we always arrange for Baxter's to deliver fluid to our holiday address. We do this via our renal nurse. Otherwise if you're going for more than a night it is just too heavy to lug around.

MandyV · Post by **MandyV** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:04 pm

There is no really quick answer because as Andy pointed out it depends on your regime - but as a quick rule of thumb when I did 3 x 1.5l /day my month's supplies fitted in the understairs cupboard; now I do APD (16.5l overnight) + 1 day time 1.5l I need a full wall and a half of a reasonable sized double bedroom. I did ask the hospital if I could change to fortnightly deliveries but the cost involved means that as it is not physically impossible to fit them in my house I cannot.

wing · Post by **wing** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:28 pm

Hi Jan,
The only thing I would add to the responses you've had so far, are to set up the storage etc somewhere convenient and to have a good storage system so that hubby can put his hand on whatever he needs immediately and doesn't have to go rooting around for stuff.
Your spare bedroom sounds ideal - near the bathroom is good for hand washing and emptying out drainage bags etc.
Plus, you can apply to your local council for a reduction in your council tax as you will be using 1 bedroom for dialysis.
Good luck to you both.
You'll soon adapt and be old hands at it.

jenjen · Post by **jenjen** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 5:00 pm

Just posted this on the other thread. Picture of boxes here:

http://www.kidney.org.uk/ditlo/aitken.html

Also... wing... how do you go about getting a reduction in council tax for using one of your bedrooms?

Mother · Post by **Mother** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 11:57 am

Just to say that we also got the council tax reduction - they reduce it by one band. Ring up your local council tax office - they sent an assessor round within a week. He just checked that we were telling the truth by looking at the boxes and APD machine.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 12:45 pm

Hi Jen

I got given a letter from the renal unit which just sent to my council and they just adjusted our council tax down by one band. They didn't even come round and check.

Hope the move goes ok

Mike

wing · Post by **wing** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 10:22 pm

I was given a letter from my renal Nurse when I first started CAPD.
Sent it off to Council Offices and a nice chap phoned to book a vist just to ensure that I was doing as I said and not renting out the room to asylum seekers!!!!
I just made sure that every piece of dialysis kit that I could lay my hands on was on view in the room when he called.