Fourteen years ago, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. She is one of the lucky ones, after removing the entire lung, chemotherapy, radiation treatment and a whole bunch of other things, she was proclaimed cancer free within six months of her diagnosis. Cancer free is always music to the ears after a battle with cancer. Nevertheless, I am not writing about cancer today, I am writing about a simple tool that helped us navigate and get through the medical labyrinth with relative ease. Moreover, we still use it today.

With every new diagnosis, there is a process, a new set of doctors to visit, and to say the least it is very daunting.  Unless you are experiencing the same illness, there is something new and there is always a learning curve navigating the process. When my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer, we were lost, this was a new illness for our family to tackle; there were new doctors, new tests, and new procedures. It was overwhelming and very confusing. Every new doctor needed the same information, as well as copies of all the test results.

Therefore, instead of trying to remember the details every time, we came up with a medical history sheet.

The sheet included:

• name, address, phone number, birth date
• list of all doctors, address, phone number, fax number
• list of allergies
• list of previous surgeries and hospitalizations
• medications, herbs and vitamins
• insurance, laboratory and pharmacy information
• Social Security number would be very helpful to include but we did not for security purposes.

I cannot tell you how handy this sheet was and continues to be for our family along with every medical staff that has interviewed my mom and dad for that matter. Of course, we made one for my dad as well. Every time I visit my folks, I make sure all the information is updated and note the date I updated it on the sheet as well (it’s important to use the most current info); medications tend to be added or changed quite often. My folks carry the medical info sheets (for themselves and each other) in their wallets and I have taped a copy to their refrigerator, in case of emergency. My brother and I both have copies to help facilitate services.

Last month, my mom fell down and broke her hip. 911 was called and my father simply handed the sheet to the EMT, it was a blessing during a very stressful time. The sheet was then given to the admitting nurse in the ER who thanked me later for creating such a helpful resource. Even 14 years after the first sheet was created, it is still an incredible tool to make a very stressful situation, a bit more bearable.

If you have elderly parents, you don’t have to wait for a crisis to create a medical information sheet, just do it. Perhaps you will never need to use it, but if you do, you will be thankful that you did.

What do you do to help facilitate getting through medical crises? Please share and I will continue to share.