Your Medical List to Be Prepared
What is on your medical list to be prepared. Emergencies Will happen…I promise you!
I’ve had it happen to my family.
I’ll start with the short version of my husband’s unexpected accident ( a crushed heel). They said that it would be 6-9 months recovery…it was 2 years and 8 surgeries; 3 specialists and a near death experience (that was 9 years ago). Next, there was my mom and her hip surgery that went bad…my dad and his double knee replacement…my husband and another emergency accident when his gall bladder exploded and what should have been a minor surgery ended up being a week in the hospital…and the last was when my mom fell at the gym and was
rushed to the hospital.
We made it through everything – even though I didn’t think that I would be able to handle it at the time. And I do know that I am extremely lucky! I haven’t had to deal with any type of family member with cancer, I haven’t had to have my family move in with me (or had to move in with them).
What all of these situations this taught me is that there is specific medical information that I needed to keep handy and be able to locate it when needed. This includes:
- List of physicians and contact information
- Hospital preference
- Health History and Medical Conditions
- Medicare/Medicaid Information
- Copy of Advanced Directive
- Health History and Medical Conditions
Being married for over 30 years, I know my husband’s medical history. What I learned is the difference between “knowing” it in my head is different when I was put into an emergency situation and had to try to think on my feet, be strong for my husband and make snap decisions about his care. Knowing his doctor’s name, phone number, test results, records, etc. was extremely helpful when having to make snap decisions that could have been life-changing decisions.
The other huge piece to my husband’s heel injury was that after a week in the hospital we found out that our insurance had been changed…and we didn’t know it! Being retired from the military, the system had switched us out of our regular plan and into the retiree plan – but we never received notification that this had happened. What in the world?
With my parents injuries I found that out that the most important information that I needed to know was their list of doctors and the doctor’s contact information. Because I don’t live near them, I only hear them talk about their doctor appointments and the doctor’s names. I don’t know where these doctors are located and I didn’t know what type of doctor they saw. And even though they don’t take a lot of medications I found out that I needed to know a list of not just their medications but also the dosage of those medications too. Having this information handy allows you and your family members to receive medical care quicker and could potentially save their life!
This is just some of the basic information that you should have handy and available to you at a moment’s notice. I’m sure that there is more that can be added to the list.
Feel free to let me know what you would add to this list!
Want to know where you can keep all of this information save? I keep mine in myLifeinCase!
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