As if I need something else to worry about. Every time it rains, it pours and with that comes the eventual power outage. A power outage in this house is a VERY BAD thing. Austin relies on technology to live. PERIOD.
In his case technology comes in the form of seven different pieces of medical equipment that keep him fed, breathing and...well, alive. It's times like this that I really HATE the whole "medically fragile" part of our lives. Don't get me wrong, day-to-day is no picnic, but we deal with it. Believe it or not, I really don't even notice the machines anymore. Crazy, huh?
They have become such a part of our lives that I don't worry about them. They hum while he sleeps and alarm when I need an alert. We are on good terms.
But it's times like this I realize how fragile and dependent he is on these machines. It's times like this when I hear other mothers complain or question "Gee, how will I keep Joey occupied in the house for five days with all this rain?" that I really want to throttle them. Meanwhile I am worrying about just keeping him alive if the power goes out, forget occupied. In the event of a power outage he will be plenty occupied!
We are on the "list" at the power company. They know we have life sustaining medical equipment so in case the power does go out, we are on some priority list. But in the meantime it is up to us to be as prepared as possible without a backup generator. Every night the machines with battery back up are charged. An O2 tank sits awaiting use if the situation requires. I'll bet you just make sure you have an umbrella when you go out the door huh? Ah, I remember those days.
- Plan A would be to sit tight on our battery supply for a few hours. I'd say 8 hours at most before I start to panic. Out of 7 machines only 3 have battery back up.
- Plan B after 8-10 hours I will take Austin, his nurse, supplies and his machines to the nearest Fire Station and recharge there.
- Plan C if the situation is dire, it will require us to drive him to a hospital and admit him.
Did I mention I also need to remember my umbrella too?
Thanks for peeking,
4 Peekers Speak:
Please tell me you also have a car battery inverter and a spare car battery? At least then you can run the vital stuff. (Not the big grey humidifier ... at least not on the cheap inverters.) If not, I know what I'm getting you for the next random holiday.
Yes this...although we only had the concentrator to be plugged in. But tornado hit our neighborhood and we were without power for about 3 days. Used up every single tank we had.
If that happened now, we only own 2 E tanks cuz I stole them from crApria so...we would either need to
A. hook up the back up generators that we now own...thank you dead FIL
or
B. Go to a hotel...far away.
Kind of would depend on the weather. We were lucky when the tornado hit that the weather was still cool but not cold so we didn't need AC or Heat at the moment.
You did worry me there Janis. I hope this rain storm doesn't end in an outage.
Oh man, you could not live up here then. We lose power every winter at least once, living in the Pacific Northwest we have so many storms and trees that knock out the power.
My heart hopes you never have to take action in your plans.
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