Battery Drama, Spellboarding, Trach Stuff

Are you sick of hearing about our battery problems yet? Here goes - last night Marvel reported that the battery had been on the charger for over 24 hours. She took it off to test it and the vent said that there was no external power, meaning the battery was dead. Hanna and I verified this today. The other battery seems to have some charge left.

I spoke with Cory about this last night and she gave a call in to Respiratory. They called back last night, however, they called on the office phone and not Peggy's line. So I spoke with Nancy from Respiratory today. She basically is stumped and told us to call an electrician because she says that it must be our house - she thinks that possibly the house is surging and therefore affecting the battery/charger. I told her I would go ahead and call one so that we can find out once and for all if it truly is our house.

Debbie from Respiratory brought us a fully charged battery for back up and took the one that we said was dead. Well, that's all good, but as soon as she left we tested her fully charged one and the vent said "no external power". Argh. So basically what this tells us is that it is the BLACK CASE that is the problem. I let Debbie know. So now here is what we have - one partially charged battery in a good black case and one fully charged battery in a BAD CASE. Please DO NOT PUT EITHER BATTERY ON THE CHARGER since it seems that maybe the battery charger might be the problem.

So anyways, I called 2 electricians and they basically told me the same thing. They both said that it is most likely not a problem with power surging or the wiring since we would see problems elsewhere in the house (as in flickering lights, problems with other equipment such as computers, or tripping of the breakers/fuse box). They both say that it sounds like it is a problem with the charger. I have one of the electricians coming in tomorrow morning to take a look at the charger, battery, and our outlets.

He told me another interesting thing. Respiratory has always told us that we can't plug the vent directly into the generator because it will damage the vent - the electrician said that there is no way that is correct and there should be no reason that we can't plug the vent into the generator.

When Debbie came I asked her about plugging the vent into the generator and she told us that we can't plug it in to it since generators don't have a steady stream of power and the surging could fry the vent. I think I will call the vent manufacturer to see what they have to say.

As for other issues...Peggy had a rough night last night. She had a mild fever around 1am (probably due to the toe infection), so Michelle gave her Tylenol which broke the fever. Peggy woke up sweating about an hour later. Michelle changed all her sheets and got her cleaned up, but she was uncomfortable with burning eyes and trach issues the rest of the night.

Reminder for all caregivers - Peg's Legs and Healthcare Alternatives Staff - we need to remember to check in with Peggy regularly with the spellboard. Peggy told us today that there are times when she feels frustrated because she will be in pain and people may not notice or use the spellboard to figure out what is going on. I spoke with Cory about this and she will be addressing it with her staff.

Regarding Peggy's recent trach pain - Cathy checked out her trach/cuff yesterday and said that it looked OK. We have the new Inner Cannula (Shiley #8) on the shelf ready for Friday when they do her inner cannula change. Hopefully this will resolve much of the issue, because if Peggy continues to have problems that can't be resolved, she will need to go to the hospital for an actual trach change which is quite painful and traumatic to the trach site. Plus you know how Peggy hates hospitals!

By the way - Eric bought the non-skid stuff for the ramp but I forgot it at home today. Hopefully I'll get it put on the ramp tomorrow when I'm here to meet the electrician in the morning. Then we're taking Indy and Sawyer to Punhaou Carnival!

So, we're getting Peggy ready for her KHNL interview now. Sawyer is finally sleeping - he's been a crabby little guy today - we think he is teething since he's drooling, has a little runny nose, and is much fussier than usual. We'll let you know how the interview goes!