Jarrod Shapiro, DPM
Practice Perfect Editor
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Podiatric Medicine
Surgery & Biomechanics
College of Podiatric Medicine
Western University of
Health Sciences
St. Pomona, CA

I Should Have Had a Backup Plan

This past week was an almost complete tragedy in my life: my laptop computer died. I was writing last week’s Practice Perfect editorial, when all of sudden my computer screen went black.

I restarted the computer…nothing.

I tried again…still nothing.

I tried a third time...This time I heard a very worrisome beeping that sounded sickeningly like an SOS signal.

Remembering that I had Lord-only-knows how many files on my computer, a slow grinding panic started to set in. Off I went to the computer store with fingers and toes crossed.

I’d had a similar problem several years ago, which had prompted me to buy my current laptop (the one now on its way to the computer emergency room). I’d felt this panic before because, during the prior computer death, I had not previously backed up my data. And, of course, as someone who should learn from his mistakes but didn’t, I had not backed up my current computer’s data. Oh, the mistakes we make!

I waited anxiously in the computer store’s long line until I was finally able to explain my problem to the "expert," who in this case must have been about 18 years old. I must be getting old now that so many people seem so much younger than me.

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Anyway, my "doctor" obtained a history, asking me how many beeps I had heard.
"Was it five beeps or seven?" he asked.
"I don’t know. It just keeps beeping," I responded.
He then proceeded to the physical exam, which consisted — as one might imagine — of trying to turn the computer on.

We looked at each other in silence as the computer failed to start.
And then, like magic, we heard a sequence of seven beeps, continually repeated.

We had a diagnosis! The doctor told me the motherboard had died.

"Easy," I said. "Let’s replace the motherboard, and I’ll go on my way."
"Not so easy," my Doogie Houser data doctor said. "Replacing the motherboard requires replacing…"
Here he mentioned a bunch of computer parts that sounded all Greek to me. It turned out that I might as well buy a new computer for the price it would cost to replace everything.

Lady luck then stepped in and threw me double sevens: my hard drive was still intact, so it would be possible to copy my data to a backup drive and put it on a new computer. I’ve never been so relieved to have to buy a new computer! I’m back on my feet without having lost more than it turns out 25,000 files (and my wife is the recipient of a new computer, having capitalized on my pain by batting her eyelashes and telling me how much she wanted a new computer – I now have hers).

My sad misadventure can teach the open-minded several lessons: the role of luck, the significance of technology in our lives, or even not underestimating the young. For me, though, this situation highlighted the importance of having a backup plan in everything we do.

Take as a common example surgery. For all of us who have spent any significant time in an OR we know, often from painful experience, that we must have a backup plan in case something goes awry. Screws fail? Kirschner wire might be your salvation. Saw breaks? Use the osteotome.

Similarly, the smart doctor will schedule their office patients with a couple of short breaks during the day in case one of their patients takes too long and the schedule backs up.

The same is true in our personal lives. Obvious examples include keeping some extra money in your bank account. Financial advisors recommend maintaining at least six months worth of money in savings in case of disability. I spend a good bit of money each month on an "own occupation" long-term disability insurance policy in case of personal injury that prevents me from working (apparently more likely to occur at my age than death). Of course, I also have a life insurance policy.

These are obvious examples of a backup plan, and it seems to me they are obvious because the repercussions of not having them are so extreme. If I were physically disabled and could no longer do my job, my family would have real problems. On the other hand, having my computer die and losing all that data must not have been that important to me – until it happened. I’ve learned my lesson and am taking my own advice. I now have a backup disk drive that I will continue to use into the future.

Consider a backup plan in everything you do. It seems "just in case" happens all too often.