Have a medical document with you !!!

Whether you are a pre-op or post-op, you should always have a paper with you listing your previous surgeries, medications (how much, when, and who prescribed), supplements (when and how much), allergies, and doctor information. 

I felt fine and suddenly I felt like I had the flu.  Within 2 hours, I went into shock because of a blockage.  I had my DS in October 2011 and full hysterectomy, TT, and Hernia repair in Nov 2012.   My colon dropped into the void of where the uterous was and twisted.  I wasn't responsive and couldn't answer the EMT questions, but my Mom gave them the paper.  The ER was able to quickly get a CT scan and determine that I did have a blockage.   I had immediate surgery and I'm on the road to recovery again.  I really think this paper (which also has a diagram of my DS system) saved me.     I also carry it with me because I have to travel overseas at times. 

Do yourself a favor and carry it with you!!  I also have Google Drive on my smart phone and loaded it to that area so that I have access to the document from my phone or anywhere in the world that I can get to my Gmail account.

Great advise, I know when I wound up in the hospital and it was hard to try to remember the names of my meds and dosages (10 mg vs 100 mg)  I will put this in my wallet and as a doc on my phone for future references. Glad to hear you are on the mend. 

WOW....so glad you are ok...great post.

Glad you are ok. My surgeon gives out a medical alert wallet card with a description of the surgery and contact info. I hope that is enough.

Only if it happens to relate to your surgery and if your contact person can be reached.

Thanks for the reminder.  I'm glad you're OK now :-)

Adding Dropbox (and marking it as a favorite so you can get to it in offline mode) to your smartphone is one of the easiest ways to do this. Box is another method.

Of the two, Dropbox is easier.

Both have smartphone apps.

I keep a copy of my medical file (it's a word document that lists everything)
First page:
Prescription Meds (dosage and how often)
Non-Prescription Meds/Vitamins (dosage and how often)
Drug Allergies
Other Allergies
Sensitivities (NOT allergies but treated as such)

Second Page:
Surgeries: name/date
Important tests (physical/blood work, mammogram, etc with date)
Diagnoses (example is my date of diabetes diagnosis)
Childhood disease
Immunizations/Shots

Third page:
Family history...I have mine listed by condition, relative, when diagnosed (IF KNOWN), and age of individual at time of diagnosis (also include age of death if appropriate)

My family history is almost 2 pages long now.

First visit to a new doctor I print the entire document to take with me...their's to keep since it resides on my computer's hard drive.

Any other visits to the same doctor, I only take the first page unless something else was changed/added.

I also take this document to my dentist not just my doctors. When I was going in for surgeries, I took 3-4 copies to make sure I had enough.

On every page, I have my name and SS#. First page starts with full name, DOB, SS# and date printed.

I have my husband set up the same way...his is only 3 pages long now, when we started it was 2. He is responsible for keeping his up to date and loaded to his copy of Dropbox or Box.

However, we BOTH have copies...that way if I need to speak for him, I can...and he can speak for me. I've also been known to hand my phone with the document on the screen to a nurse if I need to so they can copy things.

I also have a DS emergency card in there, all my labs, etc. All marked as favorites so if deep in the bowels of the hospital, I can still get to them.

I do not use a flash drive as a vast majority of places will not allow an "unknown" flash drive to be inserted in one of their computers. This way, they can see it without the fear of getting a virus from a flash drive.

And I don't go ANYWHERE without my smartphone as the case it is in holds everything I need...my DL, health card, credit cards, etc.

Liz


 

There are a number of apps available for both iPhone and Android designed for emergency health and medical records, like iTriage or ICE.  Also, many hospitals and physician's practices are using electronic medical record programs like SmartChart where you log in online to communicate with them, but they also have associated apps for your phone.  And there are other websites, like Microsoft HealthVault, which is also linked to some hosptials and doctors, but where you can manage and organize all of your records and lab results and other documents like advance medical directives, etc., so you can share them with all of your health care providers.  It also allows for emergency personnel like EMTs access, and it's a little more secure than just using Google Drive (although that's a good alternative).  

Also, my doctor gave me a card that I carry in my wallet explaining my surgery with a simple diagram, and the MS HealthVault also allows me to print out another card with all my meds, contact info, and instructions on how to access the HealthVault. 

And the MOST important thing is to keep an ICE (in case of emergency) contact in your list of phone contacts.  That contact info is also included on the HealthVault printout card, but I believe it's easiest to make that info available in all the places some EMT might look for it.