A Medical Journal

So the last 6 months have taught me that my memory is so-so and should not be relied upon in time of need! Ha, seriously as we've experienced a lot of tests, doctors, appts etc it came to my attention that I don't remember some details so well. Especially when I'm stressed about them. So I made our family a medical journal. It might be a bit over the top, but that's OK with me.

What is it...
A small (as in portable) ring bound notebook. I divided it into 4 sections with paper clips. Do you see how fancy I am? One section for each of the Long Family members. My section is the first and biggest- hee hee and then the rest of the family follows.

What is in it....
Medical information! Specifically I stapled business cards in there. I do not leave a Dr.'s office without grabbing a card anymore. Or a lab, or an imaging place, or the... well you get the point. This way I know the Dr.'s name (yes I can forget that), the phone number, address, and anything else I might need. After I staple it into the book I write down why one of us was there and when. Plus any follow-up stuff, medicines we were prescribed, etc. This is particularly helpful when you have to request copies of previous tests, scans, x-rays, etc.

Why is this helpful...
Other than to supplement my aging brain it helps me not work as hard in taking care of my family. You see, I can't remember when Amelia had her last eye exam. It was supposed to be before school started last year but our Dr. didn't take our insurance so we had to switch and then it took time to get in and so on. So, now I have to call the eye Dr and see if I need to schedule an appt now or later. Extra work that I'd rather not do. Plus I spent 10 minutes tracking down the Eye Dr info. Not anymore- it's in my notebook! I'm planning on taking this thing with me whenever we go to an appt so I can record info real time. And for some reason whatever current Dr. we are seeing seems to want to know a lot about the previous Drs. we've seen. Now I don't look at them and say, I think his name was Dr. Smith or Dr. Jones, no it was Dr. Ralph, oh dear...

I'm sure there's an electronic version of this for a fancy smart phone. But I don't see a smart phone in my future, plus I like paper. It smells good and can cut your finger. Which might require more visits to the Dr. YEAH!