How we Got here

Life Backup Plan has its roots in a practical problem I kept encountering while managing my own health and life logistics.

One day, while sitting on my sofa, recovering from yet another surgery, the reality of living alone, possibly falling down the steps, hitting my head, and laying there for days before anyone noticed they hadn't heard from me because I hadn't been checked on caused the light bulb moment of, "There ought to be an app for that."

So I made one.

I knew full well that the technology existed to do what I had in mind. After over 40 years of working on computers, including programming on keypunch cards on a mainframe computer when I first got started, computer repair and configuration, computer sales, installation, software engineering and designing, building and administering databases, I knew this could be done.

And, after a cervical spine surgery (plus two more a few years later), lumbar spine surgeries, bilateral total knee replacement, a total thyroidectomy, three sinus surgeries, a torn rotator cuff surgery, surgery to put a plate and ten screws in a broken wrist, and the temporary inability to walk or drive, I not only knew it could be done, I knew it needed to be done.

I traversed this health journey while, largely, living alone, thousands of miles from family. It was solely on me to arrange rides, get medications and groceries, have pet care while I was in the hospital or skilled nursing facility, research SNFs, make sure my health insurance was accepted there, get images and records transferred, navigate phone calls while I was trying to sleep and recover, then cook, clean, do laundry and clean litter boxes while partially immobile, once I got home, all the while wondering exactly how long it would be before anyone noticed they hadn't heard from me, if something really bad were to happen.

Fax Machines

Through it all, the one thing that saved me was my technical skills. The bane of my existence, though, is the reliance of the US healthcare system on 50+ year old technology. I live very near a major tech hub, and 500 miles south of the world-famous Silicon Valley. Are you really telling me that there's not a better way?

One time, I needed to get medical records and images from the hospital, to which I'd gone to its emergency room, from there to my primary care physician, then to the orthopedic surgeon. I distinctly remember the very nice lady in the medical records department telling me I could sign the records release form and fax it back to her, or I could stop in and sign the form there, and pick the records and images up then.

Except I couldn't drive and, please, tell me how many people have a fax machine in their home. Although this was 11 years ago, very few people had land lines any more. And fax machines require land lines.

I solved the problem by having the form emailed to me, printing it, standing on my broken ankle just long enough to sign it and scan it in, then emailing it to the office, which had a fax machine and the assistant manager graciously faxed the release form for me.

Home-based Technology

I was painfully reminded just a few days ago (March, 2026) that the healthcare system does not, in many cases, account for the reality that most people do not have a printer / scanner / copier / fax machine in their home. If they cannot drive to FedEx, Staples, or another office store, how, exactly, do they get these things done? If they live in a rural, or semi-rural area, does their healthcare suffer due to a lack of technology access?

Beyond the technical challenges of the healthcare system, I think constantly of going to high school in a semi-rural area. Weather and distance often required people to rely on one another. Sleet could cause a week long power outage, and I had three consecutive weeks off school when the Blizzard of '78 dumped enough snow on the roof of my high school to cause it to partially collapse.

Neighbors helped neighbors because there was no one else.

Less than a year before writing this website page, I traveled through some of those same semi-rural and rural communities near where I grew up and, with Life Backup Plan heavily on my mind, saw the difference it could make in urban, suburban, and rural areas alike.

My childhood included ten years of blissful summers at a cottage in very rural Michigan. I think of that now and wonder, "What if? Who would've / could've helped, if a serious safety or medical situation had arisen?"

These experiences imbued in me the importance of preparedness, communication, and mutual support.

Thus I began with the scenario of "something bad has happened to me," and the questions of, "How does anyone know? How does help get into my home? Will they get there fast enough? Is there anyone nearby who can help faster? How do first responders and healthcare workers know my medical history? Who cares for my cats while I'm gone? Are there ways to mitigate the expense of this?"

And, lastly, the scariest question of all, "What if something goes really wrong, and decisions have to be made about life support, long term care, incapacitation, final wishes, my belongings and care of my beloved cats? Who has that information? Do they know where it is? Can they be quickly reached? What do I want done with my things and my cats?" As a foster pet parent and involved in cat rescue for nearly 25 years, I've read far too many horror stories of animals being abandoned in shelters or, worse yet, left on the street after their owner dies or goes into a nursing home. I am currently fostering a beautiful little girl cat who has, I've recently realized, been dumped by her people.

I love my cats far too much to let that happen to them. I thought to myself, "Things need to be written down, plans need to be made, people need to know my intentions and, most important of all, they need to have ready access to the documents if the need arises."

Life Backup Plan is the result of those questions. It got that name because of my lengthy career in information technology. IT is famous te for having backups - and backups of backups and more backups. I even worked for a backup tape drive manufacturer for a while. I have backups on the brain. As an aside, I have a story I heard at a storage networking conference many moons ago, about how an off-site backup facility saved a company after September 11th. I'm happy to tell it, in a different format.

Far beyond backups, though, is everyday life. Ask me how I know that most of the relevant medical information happens outside a doctor's office.

Many years ago, I got hooked on, "ER." I've watched every episode at least thrice, still watch "Grey's Anatomy, The Pitt, Doc, Chicago Med," and have watched every other medical drama in the past many decades. I am enthralled at the challenges healthcare workers face every day. They face life-and-death decisions on nearly an hourly basis with a lack of resources and patient information history, yet, somehow, manage to keep their patients alive and ticking.

I remain fascinated by the TV medical dramas, some more realistic than others. I am keenly aware of the burden on healthcare workers, and their burnout, especially after COVID-19. I not only want to improve outcomes in emergencies, I want to catch chronic problems faster, lower healthcare worker burden, reduce costs, make the healthcare system far more efficient via vastly better information, and create a more value-based, patient-centered, healthcare adjacent infrastructure to improve outcomes, and mitigate stress for all involved.

Which brings me to ...