Where it all Began
EMT DAYS
Back in my days of being an EMT, there were many times that a loved one would be so understandably overwhelmed with grief and shock that answering the simplest of questions…allergies, meds, etc. would become a seemingly insurmountable obstacle.
We needed to know certain information before we could start our protocol of treatments in case one interacted with what our plans were so we could change to the next plan of action.
I would have been thrilled if anyone had handed me one of these back in the day with it all right there for me to flip to in a hurry!
CAREGIVER DAYS
I became a caregiver overnight to my mom. She had just gone from beating cancer, to being fully and completely paralyzed for the rest of her life, in a car wreck on the way to church Christmas Day. The experience was harrowing, overwhelming, and full of questions more than answers. It was a dark world I didn’t really know about…and there I was plunged full on into it.
(Here’s the last pic I have of my mom and I together before the car wreck that would change our lives forever.)
I had to learn quickly and not allowed to mess up but within a very small window or it could mean her very life. She had become a C1 Quad which meant not even breathing on her own anymore. You name it, she had it. The tubes, bags, machines, all of it.
We would take her to the doctor for an appointment and the front desk would want me to fill out the regular paperwork we all know about. One time I could take it no more. Between mom’s weight shifts, coughing her off her ventilator, mixing her meds with water and putting in her feeding tube, taking her to the bathroom to empty the urine bag and colostomy bag and cleaning up from that, I LITERALLY HAD NOT ONE SINGLE HALF A SECOND to fill out this darn paperwork.
(Mom slept during the day in the beginning bc she was terrified to sleep at night in case her vent popped off and she couldn’t wake us)
So, I walked up to the front desk clerk and through tears streaming down my face asked her, “If I were to make up a plain Jane, no frills or fancy fonts form and kept it maintained all the time with all my moms stuff and it was easily scannable and all that jazz…could you accept that when I come in?” She smiled and said “ABSOLUTELY”
And so, the very crude rough draft and simplified Emergency Medical Info form was born!
It would become so long over the years as my amazing mom lived almost 10 years to the day like that…..shocking all the doctors that we came into contact with who had never seen someone with her level of injury live so long.
WHY IT MATTERS SO MUCH
FROM A MEDICAL PERSPECTIVE:
When you are in the medical field, THE DETAILS GREATLY MATTER! Actual protocols and courses of action are dictated and changed depending on certain allergies or medications or indications or prior medical history.
Medical Personnel couldn’t care less about your personal things you do…it’s all about creating an outline of how to best help you.
I will give you an example…when I was an EMT and the drug Viagra came out, we were called in for an Emergency Continuing Education Meeting. I don’t recall which protocol it was as it has been years now that I have been away from Emergency Medicine, but there was one of our standard protocols that if you went with that protocol and the person was taking Viagra it would actually stop their heart. So, we made it a point to not only ask every single person, but to inform them that if in fact they are taking it, and we don’t know that this is what will happen because of the interactions of the drugs.
Medical Personnel aren’t there to judge you or what you do in your private time. It has to be an open timeline history because they are basically detectives trying to figure out the issue but only have the information they are given. If they aren’t given the full picture, they could miss the correct diagnosis.
So, it’s not a pressure thing at all as everyone is just doing their best, but this is a way you can do your best for sure and it’s a great help!
FROM A CAREGIVING PERSPECTIVE:
Mom had so much happen constantly as you can see from a glimpse of just one of her medical history pages of her emergency medical info form that it would be a full time job to write all of that down every single time we went to the doctor.
Also, keeping up with it when we came home from the doctor and just typing it up real quick and printing out the new paper to put in the binder was so much easier than trying to recall her entire history every time we went.
It went from overwhelming and panic inducing, to an easy 15 minute chore of coming home, pulling up the file and adding it in there.
FROM A MOM’S PERSPECTIVE:
Having my own beautiful kiddos and all the stuff they have had going on from leg braces and mris to surgeries and more, when my youngest was terribly sick while we lived in TX with both Strep and Flu simultaneously and had spiked 106 temp and the doctors wanted to know her history, I couldn’t stop crying, “Help my baby. Please help her. Make her well again.” I literally couldn’t think straight to tell them her history.
You see even though at this time, my Mom had already been in heaven and I long ago had created the Emergency Medical Info form, it didn’t dawn on me until that moment that THIS WAS SOMETHING EVERY ONE NEEDED FOR EVERY PERSON IN THEIR HOUSEHOLD!
HERE IT IS:
So, the long awaited and much needed updated EMERGENCY MEDICAL INFO FORM was born!
The best part is that it’s been brought into this century by making it downloadable and pdf fillable and you can email it as well as print it. So, whether you are filling it in on the fly on your phone or download it to you computer to continue to add to it, or both, IT’S AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW FOR YOU AT NO CHARGE!
I am very passionate about this form BEING FREE AND STAYING FREE FOR LIFE!
Every person on the planet needs this form for everyone in their household!
So, go grab your form that can easily save your sanity and take your power back by kicking worry over being prepared to the curb!
You are on your way now to being a well planned person! It’s what I like to call Desperate Organization!
It allows me the freedom to get on with the joy of living life instead of wondering about the what ifs?
With hundreds of downloads across the globe, this form is helping people breathe a little easier.
Have you grabbed yours yet? WHY NOT? WHAT YOU WAITING FOR? HERE IS YOUR SIGN!
DOWNLOAD IT AND SAVE IT AS MANY DIFFERENT NAMES AS YOU HAVE IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD! EACH PERSON GETS THEIR OWN!!!
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