Re:Bracelets/ Response

[Guest guest]

Hi , Y'all

I wanted to know if any of our members ever notice that, they will get cramps in their stomach to warn

Them of a warning about an asthma attack coming on?

Or do they notice a tickle in their throat?

My children want me to wear a bracelet. But I feel ...its an advertisement of my being a sick person.

Virginia

-------Original Message-------

Speaking as a former EMT...we generally arent the ones looking for information if you are unresponsive. In todays age, a good majority of the time a police officer will also respond but again, thats not always the case...it typicallly was where I lived. The police are the ones who would be looking for information and most likely they will look for a wallet as would I if I had to look for identification. I am much more likely to find your medic alert necklace or bracelet in a much faster time frame b/c thats physically ON your person and with a good head to toe assessment I SHOULD find it.

The problem I forsee with attaching stuff to keychains is this: not everyone ALWAYS has their own personal keys on them. If I go someplace with my husbands car- I use his keys...or...if he has my truck, he would have my keys. Suppose something happens to him while hes driving my truck...they see the asthma key tag/etc and start treating him for respiratory problems but his real problem might be hypoglycemia.

From my standpoint...a medic alert tag is nice to know information that supplements a good head to toe assessment. If youre having problems breathing, my assessment is going to bring that out within seconds of starting b/c the first 3 things on an assessment are airway & breathing. Next is circulation. Under circulation we assess a pulse, look for obvious bleeding etc. Then we move on to look for deformities. After that the assessment gets more detailed. A medic alert tag might serve to confirm suspicions aroused through the assessment.

Honestly...Ive never even made a call to medic alert on an ambulance or on scene. I have however seen where a paramedic will call a personal physician on a non-emergent occasion where he could take the time to do it. Life or death though? Its not happening. In all liklihood, the ER is going to be the ones that actually call medic alert.

Ann

<puts on her tech-head hat>I'd advise a plain text file, not a Word doc or Excel spreadsheet (or any other proprietary software), if you're going to carry a usb/flash drive with your medical information on it. No hospital with a decent security policy is going to permit staff to open a file that could possibly contaminate their computers and/or networks, and there are security flaws in Word and Excel, we get new patches for them on a regular basis. There's also the possibility that they don't use Word or Excel, and wouldn't be able to open the file even if they felt it was worth the risk. But pretty much any computer can safely open a .txt file.<takes off her tech-head hat>If you do have complicated medical conditions, or take a lot of medications, or might not be able to communicate in an emergency, a usb/flash drive is an excellent idea, and the best place to put it is on your keychain, I read that more than 90% of emergency medical techs will check your keychain for one if you're unable to communicate with them.

I was reading this and found it interesting but I don't believe you need to spend a fortune on programs on a usb drive when you can probably do your own on word or in excel then download to to a drive. Personally, I wear a MedicAlert Watch with Asthma. Diabetes, and one major drug allergy engraved on the back of the case. I have the printout of the medication/contact report in my purse and can print more from the website as needed. This way I don't have to worry about remembering all my meds and dosages. If the watch ever breaks, I still have my bracelet. I do have the word ICE beside my daughter's and husband's numbers in my phone in case I need them in an emergency. This is just the way I do things. Do whatever works for you.Today, my lungs are a little twitchy. It's not taking much to send me into coughing fits but my asthma is behaving so that's a good thing.

info - Medical Bracelets Go High-TechStyle Aside, More People Find They Should Wear Themhttp://online.wsj.com/article/the_informed_patient.html

[Guest guest]

Madilyn,

My problem is that I'd need about 10 of those medical alert bracelets to list

all my serious life-threatening allergies, including IV's, normal inhalers, meds

with corn-stuff, etc. I do carry five pages of medical history with all those

things listed out, including all the corn components, diagnosed medical issues,

anaphylaxis info, and list of my doctors and their contact information.

The other issue is that in the ER, the doctor can ignore your medical alerts if

he thinks what is going on isn't covered by your alerts. I know a number of

folks with anaphylactic reactions (including me) who were not treated correctly

in spite of the written instructions, history and a spouse or friend who begged

the doctor to read the medical info. Very frustrating.

Jo Ann in SoCal

[Guest guest]

Madeline,

Sorry!! I spelled your name wrong in my last note.

I do apologize. I know how frustrating it can be since my first and last names

are most often misspelled.

Jo Ann