We have said it many times before, but for anyone new to the page, suction is something we rely on HEAVILY!!! That being said, we have backups and backup backups, etc. We have some that run on batteries to use when we are out of the house, or moving around the house, and then stationary units that run a little (very little) quieter to use while Casey sleeps.
Our preferred suction machine is called a Clario. The company that sells these no longer sells them in the US. A few years ago we had 1 that we loved and we decided to buy 2 more from Canada. These are our main machines. When one’s battery dies we go to the next and plug in the now dead to charge. This made it so there was 1 in use, 1 charging, and 1 ready to go (most of the time). When Casey’s little friend Guili passed away in July they had a new model of a machine offered here in the US that they gave us to try out. We really hoped it would be as good or better than the Clario so we could move over to it. It worked, better than the previous model by the same company, but it’s suction was not as consistent as our Clario so it was our backup that we often kept in the car and had handy away from the house. We also had an old model from that company that we had for emergencies, but really never use. It is so LOUD and Casey gets really angry when we turn it on. Then we have the stationary unit in her room.
A couple of weeks ago 2 out of the 3 Clario’s broke. Since they are not offered in the US, we had to ship them to Canada for repairs (ouch!). We still had 1 Clario and the one from Guili to use as well as our older portable backup so we didn’t worry too much. We were using the remaining Clario and when we went to use the backups neither was holding a charge. They both still worked plugged in, but as soon as we removed the charger they failed. This has happened before with this brand. If you don’t use the battery often they just stop charging. We were a little freaked out having only 1 portable, but the other units were out for repairs and we hoped they would return quickly. We kept the remaining unit charged as much as possible and carried plugs with us everywhere we went (we always have the plug- just in case).
Last weekend our only remaining portable stopped charging!!! Oh my goodness, we have been on edge. If the power went out our only option would be to take Casey to the car to power the unit until we could get to power. We couldn’t go to any appointments because we had no suction from the car to where ever we were headed. We cancelled everything out of the house this week.
Of course, Casey is sick this week. She has been trying to get over a cold and just kept getting worse. I called her doctor to tell her and see if she wanted us to go in for xrays, or to see her when all of a sudden I realized- WE CAN’T LEAVE THE HOUSE!!! We were hostages unable to leave a plug.
The company sent back the repaired units and we watched tracking more than TV over the past few days. Yesterday it was out for delivery. We waited eagerly all day for FedEx to knock on the door. Just before 7 the status changed to “delivered- left at door”. Tim went outside and said no package, no truck. He walked up and down to see if FedEx maybe left a box at a neighbors house- nope. Of all the packages to get lost in shipping, not this one!!!! I was freaking out and Tim called FedEx right away. Luckily he was able to figure out what had happened. The company billed our current address for the repairs, they had our current address as the return address, but for some reason they shipped the package to old house. Tim threw on his shoes and rushed over. The package was there and he was able to get it back home as I was getting Casey to bed.
Talk about a stressful week. You would think with all of the backups we have in place we would be able to avoid this kind of drama. We planned to take Casey to get an xray this morning and then possibly to see her doctor, but now that we CAN leave the house again, she seems to be feeling much better. I can breathe again knowing that we CAN leave if we need/want to. Today has been great having the portable units back in rotation.