6 October 2020
The Wound VAC gave up the ghost this afternoon just after 3 p.m. when I was changing the canister. I pressed the power button to turn it back on and ... nothing.
I plugged in the power adapter and the yellow charging light came on but still the power button didn't start the unit. The battery had about a 75 percent charge when the unit died.
No suction is, how to put this, a problem.
Without suction, the dressing can last between two and eight hours. I learned that from Dana, the Kaiser advice nurse, who I talked to a month ago. The documentation says two hours but Dana said eight.
So I immediately called Apria and explained that the unit was not pumping. Alicia knew just what to do. She got Richard from Apria on the line and he walked me through the troubleshooting procedure.
Plug it in. (Yep.) Turn it on. (Nothing.)
OK, he says, we'll exchange it as a power button failure.
Alicia put the request in, marking it urgent. The dispatcher said it would be here within a three-hour window.*
But I scored bonus points by reordering the supplies we would have ordered tomorrow. No sense sitting on hold for half an hour tomorrow too.
They've got an hour and a half left in their window as I leisurely write this to amuse myself instead of pouring a scotch, which is not quite as amusing but does the trick in a pinch.
The trick to a prompt delivery should be obvious to me by now. Start cooking dinner. So off I go!