Monday's Household Assignment- Medical Records

This week I'd like you to organize your medical records for you and for your family. This is critical especially if you have kids. You have got to have easy quick access to your medical history in an emergency. This is how I have my families set up but you can do it anyway that you want, just do it.

The first thing that you need to do is gather the medical histories for each member of your family. You may have to contact you family doctor for some of this information but you need to have a copy of it that you can access at a moment's notice. Here are the items you need to gather and include.

• Allergies to any medications  or allergies in general
• Immunization records- Not just for the kids but for you as well. When was your last tetanus shot??
• Surgical history with the actual dates- Let's see, Suzy had her tonsils out when she was in second grade and she's 20 now so that would have been in....... Doesn't count! Get the actual dates.
• Medical History- Major diseases both past and present and the dates of their onset and resolution. 
  
• Last checkup and any unusual, yet normal to you, test results. For instance, one of my kids has a normal fasting blood sugar of 45. Usually if your blood sugar is under 60 you are going into a coma, not really but it's considered very low and unhealthy. This kid is very healthy and this is his normal. Another of my kids and myself have a normal temperature of 96.4 to 96.6. If our temperature gets to 99 we are really sick.
• Current medications that are being taken. Include the name of the medication, how often you take it, how much ar many you take and the strength (how many mg per tablet)
• Current Vitamins you take including brand strength and how often you take them. 

Once you have gathered all this information up, type up a one page sheet for each person and include all of this information. Put the name and birthdate at the top and make sure to use headings for each section to make it very easy to see the information sections. If you know how add a jpeg copy of your insurance card to the second page of this file. Save the file to your computer in a folder called Medical Histories.

Now here is the big tip! If you have a secure email server- ie- NOT hotmail, send a copy of each person's history to yourself. Just keep it in your email account inbox and leave it there, I emailed my husband copies as well. By doing this, you'll be able to access the histories from any computer where ever you you happen to be. Any ER will be glad to let you access it and print out a copy. I keep a hard copy, that I printed out, in a folder along with any xrays, test result or other medically related items I have kept for each child. I also print out a copy of each person's history and bring it along with us when we travel.  Having all of this information in one spot and accessible has really helped my family get the correct treatment in emergency situations. You hopefully will not ever need to use your compiled records but it is really a good idea to have them ready, just in case.