Caregiver’s fear on a rainy night

As you sit there looking at the picture above; imagine for a moment that you are a caregiver for someone with lung disease. 

This person is dependent on oxygen 24/7 continual oxygen….not pulse. Your day as a caregiver has gone fairly well and then night falls and storms move into the area. In the house, you have a home concentrator, a monster tank that lasts four hours, and about 16 travel tanks each holding about an hour’s worth of oxygen each. 

Lights begin to flicker which puts you in preparation mode….gather flashlights and battery-powered lanterns. Make sure the coffee maker is ready because he doesn’t like gas station coffee. Be sure the oxygen bottle by the bed is ready for breathing treatments and Monster tank is hooked up and ready to connect to the patient. All of that is usually the way this caregiver handles a rainy night but……………

this is what accrued the other day.  The lights flickered and I went into preparation mode…gathered flashlights and lanterns. Made the coffee and before I could begin to count the hours of oxygen in the home and prepare for any power outage the home concentrator started acting up……this patient’s O2 numbers go down fast if no oxygen after about 20 minutes. The monster tank that had just been replaced from the last storm was leaking and that left me with about 14 hours worth of oxygen with smaller tanks.  Luckily I figured out the problem with the home concentrator; it was a hose and the power didn’t go off for more than a couple hours.  

Fear is always in a caregiver’s mind…..Fear On A Rainy Night really heightens the anxiety of what could happen.

If you are a caregiver also, please share a fear that heightens your anxiety?