Friday, April 17, 2009

Caregiver Aids #3: UPS (not the shipper)

Back in the time when I worked at the office rather than at home, Skip spent ~10 hours a day at home alone. At some point, her MS progressed enough that she spent most of her day in a power recliner that could lift her up to aide her transfer off. On the end table beside her recliner were a lot of things she used every day, including a cordless phone.

On the infrequent occasions when the power would go out, she was pretty stuck in the recliner. It did include a couple of 9-volt batteries for one lift up when there was no electricity, but at times she found the batteries were dead so no lift was possible. More impactful, though, was the lack of a phone. A cordless phone doesn't work when the power goes out. The only corded phone in the house was on the wall in the kitchen, well out of reach for her.

One time we lost power at home for hours while I was blissfully unaware of any problems at work where we had power aplenty. She was trapped on the recliner with no means to call anyone, no tv, no laptop, no internet, etc. until I got home from work.

So, soon thereafter, we went to Best Buy and bought a small Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). It's essentially a really big battery. They're rated according to the approximate number of minutes/hours they can power your computer in the case of a power outage. We have everything around Skip's setup in the living room plugged into it ... phone, lamp, computer, and (before we gave it away) the recliner. So, even with an outage, Skip was no longer marooned in the gloom waiting for me to come home and rescue her. (Or at least provide company until the power came back on.)

9 comments:

steve said...

Great suggestion. BR's in his power chair all day, and the cell phone pretty much does the trick for communication. Problem is he likes his ringtone so much, he won't answer.

Another thing I forgot about regarding power outages is VOIP. My neighborhood is fiber only -- no copper circuits. AT&T provides battery backup for the fiber-to-ethernet electronics and *their* U-Verse voice service, but not for their U-Verse internet service. We decided to go with T-Mobile @ Home for voice, so both the U-Verse internet and T-Mobile voice routers need to have battery backup.

awb said...

The 10 hours a day is hard to get used to, I've been doing it for 12 years now. Bad enough until you throw in the lack of electronics, no fun at all, and depending on circumstances, Not safe I imagine. This isn't a fun game we are in, is it?

Andy

Cranky said...

Steve - too funny about the ringtone! (But, I suspect, frustrating when you're trying to reach BR.) We switched to Comcast Digital Voice a while back and haven't had a power outage since. However, they told me the phone will still work when there's no power.

When you speak about T-Mobile needing battery backup, is that backup in your home or on their networks?

Andy - damn right it's no fun! Wish we could take our bat and ball and go home.

Herrad said...

Hi Cranky,

Can I go home with you all?

Love,
Herrad

steve said...

T-Mobile @ Home is like Vonage. You buy a VOIP router that plugs into your home internet router. Any regular phone can plug into the VOIP router. Both routers need battery backup to maintain phone service during an outage.

Interesting thing I read about T-Mobile is that they bridge the VIOP calls locally to their cell phone network, rather than routing them over the public internet.

Cranky said...

Herrad - what a nice thing to say! No THC available here, though. Sounds like THC and Richie's care are huge comforts for you.

Steve - thanks for the explanation on T-Mobile @ Home. I use a Vonage phone here for my work calls to leave the house phone free for Skip.

Herrad said...

Hi Cranky,
Here are some non ms blog links for your darling.
Love,
Herrad
http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/

http://behold-themetatron.blogspot.com/

http://amyfrostwhite.blogspot.com/

http://angelarhodes.blogspot.com/

http://behold-themetatron.blogspot.com/

http://foodloverscayasm.blogspot.com/

http://chatterinthekitchen.blogspot.com/

http://amourpetitgateau.blogspot.com/

http://www.plaidpatterns.blogspot.com/

http://www.zazzle.com/laesieworks

http://rejectedtruth.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-commentor-not-on-my-biased.html#comments

http://www.hautewhimsy.com/

http://theenglishmuse.blogspot.com/http://

Cranky said...

Herrad - thanks! We'll give them a tour.

awb said...

We are using magicjack, $20 a year baby, oh yeah! We got rid of Verizon phone and were able to keep the internet.