Ounce of Prevention

In our condo, we now have Alert 1's medical security system. You've heard the "I've fallen and can't get up!" commercial? Well I decided that for less than a dollar a day it was worth the piece of mind to know that I could get help quickly if I was in trouble.

Did I say I? Well with Gregory's Alzheimer's I realized that I could not depend on him in an emergency. If I need help, unless I am really far gone, I could probably be able to crawl to the station in the bedroom, TV room, or kitchen and push the button for help. If I can not tell the responder what the problem is they will automatically send an ambulance and paramedic.

Then they will notify several people on our emergency list to inform them of what is going on. Our friends can not get to the condo quickly enough to help but they can get here to help Gregory until I return or until other arrangements are made.

So today the system had a test. A fierce storm ripped through Chicago, including Evanston, and over 600,00 people were without power for most of the day. The power went out at 8:00 am, we left the condo at about 10:00 am and by 1:00 pm we received a call first from Jan, and next from Roger, the two first responders on our emergency list.

The Alert 1 unit has a battery back up for short power outages but our outage had spent the battery and the Alert 1 people got a "bad battery" message. They tried calling us but not only were we away from the condo, when the power is out our telephone system doesn't work. So Alert 1 followed through and called the first responders to check up on us.

I called the company back and let them know we were OK. I also added my cell phone number to their information bank with the explanation that our land line does not work when the power is out. While the exercise seemed full of "Strum and Dram" it was good to know that the system worked well.

I called Jan and Roger back and said, "We have not fallen and if we had, we were able to get up!"