Restocking the Emergency Box

I like to be prepared for situations that may not come up a lot, but would be pretty darn inconvient or unsafe if I wasn't prepared. An important part of this for me is having supplies for Talli to get through an emergency. Say if we had to evacuate or we had a fire, flood, or tornado, all unlikely situations, but they could come up. So I keep a couple days worth of supplies with a friend who lives about am hour away.

Today, I met up with my friend Jill. Her son also has Propionic Acidemia, but is on a different brand of medication and he only uses 2 of the 4 formulas that Talli uses. So last night we were chatting and e-mailing about what was in the last box we left at each others houses. Everything had expired or was no longer usable (i.e. diapers that were too small).

In the couple of years that we have been doing this, Jill has not had to use her supplies that were at my place. However, we have had to use what she had stored for us. We are regularly near Jill's place for religious services. Three years ago, I was coming back from Michigan from visiting with some friends and was to meet up with my husband, Talli, and M, so Rawlo could attend a religious service near Jill's house. I arrived a little late and Rawlo had already left (some friends were watching our kids), Talli's feeding had been forgotten at home. I thought that she would be ok with some sugar water in her feeding tube.

Unfortunately, Talli was sick with something and when Talli gets sick, she get sick quickly. Within about an hour, she fell asleep (a sign things are pretty bad) and wouldn't wake up. As I packed up our things to head home, she started to vomit. I made a quick call to Jill who made up a batch of no-protein formula and a friend carried Talli to my car. She continued to throw up on the quick trip to the car. We made it to Jill's house in about 15 minutes and got her some formula and cleaned her up. Thankfully, by the time we arrived back to our house she had perked up and could be roused. NOTE TO SELF: put some extra clothes in the box at Jill's place.

So, while we have only used the supplies once, that one time did save Talli from a likely hospitalization.

For those with similar disorders or any chronic medical condition that requires medication, any kind of emergency like I previously mentioned could impact the health of the individual as emergency responders (i.e. Red Cross) are usually not set up to provide for chronic medical needs. It is best to be prepared, so that you are not dependent upon others in these types of situations. For us, it typically takes at least 3 days to get formula from our supplier.

Ready.gov has information in being prepared for those with disabilities and medical conditions. This page has the most information: http://www.ready.gov/america/getakit/disabled.html