What do we write on the medical alert bracelet?

" If you are reading this, I'm screwed."

I don't know that I agree, while a first responder will not have to treat you any differently, the ER would need to know that you had a smaller stomach and rerouted intestines right?

Fatty, I do know that some DSers keep a drawing of the surgery in their wallet or car "just in case."  We don't have medications that we cannot take (to my knowledge) and really unless there are problems in the stomach area there shouldn't be anything a first responder would need to know in order to treat you immediately.

I will be putting a drawing and some contact information in my car and wallet but that is as far as I will go.  What about the rest of you?

Thanks everyone! I'm really glad I asked the question. I guess I just figured there must be things that a medic might need to know (things that I don't even know yet!). Can we take exactly the same meds and in the same amounts as somebody without DS or do they have to change amounts and types administered?

While I'm certainly no expert and I haven't been switched yet, I can't think of anything that would be given in an emergency situation that our bodies couldn't handle short term.  In other words, if you're bleeding and unconscious, I would rather they do whatever it takes to get me awake and breathing and then explain my surgery later.  Between the choice of being dead or having a drug not work properly/cause an ulcer/cause a mineral imbalance, I'd chose being alive any day of the week.  That's just my thought, though :-).

Yes, I agree!

If we're unconscious and unable to tell people about our altered anatomy, there's no way that they're going to be administering drugs to us orally.  It will all be through an IV. And there is no difference in absorption of medicines through an IV when you've had the DS. Make sense?

Yes that does! Thanks Sarah.

 I've been a paramedic for 13 years.  There is nothing that we could/would give or do that would be affected by the DS.  No need for a medic alert bracelet simply because of this surgery.  It would in fact, most likely, confuse the emergency responders and possibly hinder your care.  Their job is to preserve life, by any means necessary.  Other issues that come up from preserving life can be dealt with once you are alive again :)  As an aside, did you know you aren't doing chest compressions correctly during CPR unless you break ribs???  Broken ribs can heal, as long as you are living.  Same idea applies here.  All the meds we give can be given IV, and only very few are given orally, but you aren't getting anything by mouth (except maybe a breathing tube or airway adjunct) if you are unconscious.  

I was actually thinking along these lines last week, but in my paranoid brain, i imagined getting shot in the stomach and when they go in, they see my intestines not hooked up in a normal way and not knowing what to do about it and i end up actually getting a reversal once they've searched for the bullet and found it and now need to put my innards back together.

I know, it's out there, but i thought of an extreme case such as this that could cause a problem, which made me feel the need to have something on a bracelet as well.

Berta

Some one, I can't remember who, had this happen. ( well, she wasn't shot) she had to have her DS re-done.
My emergency contact and myself have all my info on a flash drive, I have a card in my wallet that has the surgery anatomy and directs them to the flash drive. That is more for long-term care though.

Michele