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.)