Making Your Emergency Medical Alert Document

   

 If you have an illness or disability that could affect emergency medical care, it's extremely important that you have a document with emergency instructions with you at all times.  (This is in addition to a concise medical history, a clearly visible medical ID bracelet/necklace, and any medications or supplies you may need.) 

    What those emergency instructions look like will depend on your situation, but there are some things that are universally relevant:

    1. Make sure the emergency instructions are easily accessible.  If you are having an emergency, you want to be able to get to them quickly.  If you are incapacitated, you also want someone else, perhaps even a stranger, to know to look for them.  I keep my emergency instructions in my purse in this highly visible pouch (mine is bright red) with my medical history and emergency supplies.  I also have these keychains on my purse and a seat belt sleeve if I'm traveling by car.  I have a second kit for my caregiver to carry with them as a backup.  

    2. Include eye-catching font size and/or a relevant graphic that signifies the document is for emergencies. 

    3. Include your name and emergency contacts.

    4. Include your relevant conditions, what an medical emergency may look like, what precautions you may have, and care instructions.

    5. If your emergency care includes something like giving injections or placing you in the recovery position, you can include a QR code that leads to a video tutorial.  Additionally, print out instructions and keep them with your emergency medical supplies.  

    6. I always find it polite to add a little thank you to the person(s) who are saving your life.  :) 

Here is a template that you can use to create your own emergency medical document.  You can copy and paste this into whatever word processing program you use and then personalize it.  Here's a preview:

If you are wondering what conditions or situations may warrant carrying around a document like this, here is a (non-exhaustive) list with some ideas:

-Diabetes 

-Autism

-Adrenal Insufficiency (Addisons)

-Asthma

-PTSD

-Anxiety Disorders

-Allergies

-Epilepsy

-Narcolepsy

-Dysautonomia

-Dementia

-Hyper/hypo Periodic Paralysis

-Pregnancy (especially if high risk)

-Many Psychiatric Disorders 

-Any condition with range of motion precautions or restrictions

-Any condition that restricts breathing 

-Any condition with a medication pump

-Any condition that requires life sustaining medication

-Anyone with MRI precautions (aneurysm clip, implanted devices, etc.)

-Any condition that required intubation precautions (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Down Syndrome, Hx cervical spinal fusion)

Need help creating a medical history document to go with your emergency instructions?  Check out this post!

        

All of October in One Day

    I love October.  I love nearly everything about it - the leaves changing colors, the briskness in the air (that we in California are still waiting on, by the way), the goofy Halloween directions that sprout up in my neighborhood, and the spooky playlist that I’ve spend the last several Octobers curating.  I love how there’s squash and sweet potato in the grocery stores and everything is pumpkin spice this or apple flavored that.  I love sipping tea, and running outside to bask in the season’s first rain, and settling down to watch Halloween movies that I’ve loved since childhood.  October is my holiday season. 

And today I tried to fit as much of it as I could into one single day.

My health is precarious right now, and especially lately, it’s been really limiting what I can do.  I’ve spend much of the last several weeks in bed, and though I feel ok today, I have no idea what tomorrow will bring.  So I do what many with unpredictable chronic illnesses do, and pack as much fun and meaning into each good moment.  I have to balance the relief, joy, and enthusiasm I feel at finally being able to reengage in life with the measured and restricted mindset I need to not overdo things.  I don’t want to pay for the things I do on a “good” day for the next several weeks.  Not unless it’s really worth it.  

So what does October look like to me?  What does it look like when I celebrate my favorite time of year as much as my health allows?  Well, it probably only seems exciting if you’ve been laying in bed for a few weeks.  But for me, today was an adventure.   

The first step toward autumn bliss was a field trip for a latte.  Somehow I had gone this far in my life without trying the famous pumpkin spice version, so getting one was my mission.  If I’m fitting a whole season into one day, I don’t have time for caramel, or cookie flavor, or anything else that doesn’t scream FALL.  

It was Mom's first day out since her surgery.  Double celebration!

    Even though I didn’t spend more than twenty-seconds in the shop and I was geared up with a mask and hand sanitizer, it was nice to do something that felt so normal.  Don’t mind me.  Just sitting in the car sipping a latte like a regular person on this lovely 90 degree fall day.  (Sometimes it takes a little imagination for the proper mood to be set.)

After a rest, it was time to dust off the Halloween decorations and attack the front yard with fake spider webs and paper mache props.  To keep me pushing through the pain and fatigue, and to make it even more October-ish, I had my Halloween playlist blasting through my headphones.  What must my neighbors have thought of the girl manically stretching fake spider webs over every inch of the front yard while singing Rihanna and Eminem’s “The Monster” or bobbing my head to the beat of the Halloween soundtrack?  I don’t know, because I was too busy Octobering to notice.

Remember: Done is sometimes better than good.

Somehow, after a few hours recovering from my whirlwind decorating, I was up for one of my very favorite things to do at this time of year - grocery shopping at Trader Joe's.  (Yep, I sure do know how to party.)  Now Trader Joe's is a sickly person’s dream on any old day.  It’s one place I can find healthy and affordable meals that don’t require more effort than sticking them in the microwave for a few minutes.  But in October - oh it’s magical!  While waiting in line to get in, I inspected every warty squash or gourd, finally settling on a few that I felt had excellent character (or carving potential.)  Yes, receiving trick-or-treaters may be canceled this year in my high risk household, but I still plan to go all out in my carving menagerie anyway.  

I'll take all of them, please.

    And once inside…what a display!  My poor brain was torn between taking in all the autumn themed treats and dishes and remembering to stay 6ft away from other humans.  I darted around the store, finding seasonal treasures and dumping them into my family’s cart like it was a strange, post apocalyptic version of Supermarket Sweep.  Though I eyed the beautiful sweet potato and squash produce, in the end, I decided on the precut kind.  After all, this is my one good day.  I can’t guarantee I’ll be up to preparing them from scratch tomorrow.

As the day came to a close, I spent an extra second taking in the night air, finally cool enough that I it felt a little more like October than mid-July.  I eyed my decorations with satisfaction.  I disinfected and admired my spoils from the store.   It was a good day.

My bounty.  (Not pictured - the 6 other bags of groceries.  Shopping with me is a nightmare.)

I’ll go to sleep tonight feeling both relieved and satisfied that, to at least some extent, I was able to engage in my favorite month of the year.  Whatever happens tomorrow, I had today and I filled it to the extent that I could.  That’s the chronic illness life.  We don’t get to decide what we are able to do or when we are able to do it, but we can decide to live it up as much as possible when we get these short reprieves.

   

Happy October everyone!  

 

The Importance of Having a Medical History

   As a complex chronically ill patient, and as a healthcare professional, I have learned that providing doctors (or therapists) with a well organized and concise medical history can be an absolute game changer.  Figuring out what to include in that medical history and how to organize that information can be challenging though.  

   I've had over a decade to fine tune how I organize medical information and I thought I should share my methods in case it helps anyone else.  

Everyone (yes even healthy people!) should have a one page medical history that they carry with them and bring to each appointment.  If you are a complex or chronically ill patient this may be one page front and back.  It should include:

1. -A heading that includes your name, contact information, and your date of birth.
2. -General information like your age, sex, gender, marital status (if any of that is relevant).
3. -Contact information for your doctors, pharmacy, and emergency contacts.
4. -Medication list including the name, dose, frequency, and reason for taking it.  
5. -List of your diagnoses including when you received the diagnosis and who from.
6. -List of any major surgeries, hospitalizations, accidents, etc.
7. -List of allergies/intolerances including medications, environmental, and food.

I created a free medical history template that you can use here.  You can copy and paste it into whatever you use for word processing and edit it to reflect your history.  Check out some of my comments where I give additional explanations or tips.  

The benefit of having a medical history is that health care workers can get a good overall picture of your case in a quick and accessible manner.  (And they will love you forever for making their job easier!)

Here is a preview of what my medical history template looks like:

Do you have any tips?  Let me know in the comments!