Organizing: The PHR (Personal Health Record)

July 18, 2016 mhanlon4j 0

One of the simple steps to take to become a better caregiver is in organizing the personal health information of your child, spouse, or elderly parent. This is such a simple step and yet it is so easy to forget. Here are some of the reasons that can trip us up:

• You may feel like you can remember all of the medical information
• You may feel like you do not have time to write things down because there is too much information and it is all a bit overwhelming
• You rely on the doctor’s office to give you copies of what you need when you need it.

Now, while these are all valid points, everything changes when you enter the world of chronic illness and disability. You will find a natural tendency to always be on autopilot, caring for the emergencies of the urgent instead of the callings of the important.

What do I mean by this?  For me, caring for Gabrielle felt like I was always urgently addressing her emergencies.  She would get another infection and I would need to go through the steps to get the script, order from the pharmacy, give it to her 4’xs a day, which would require putting it into the mix of her other medication schedule, keep an eye on her for any reactions, follow up with doctor if the medicine worked or retake blood tests to see if the infection had cleared up and then start the process all over again.

For those with chronic illness, infection is never a good thing.  Their body can decline quickly.

I would be urgently dealing with wheelchair issues or the medical equipment in her bedroom that glitches up like her feeding pump that fed her through the night.  These “urgent” issues are stressful situations that directly affect the entire family.  If her wheelchair breaks we cannot go anywhere. If her feeding pump stops working in the middle of the night then one of us is staying up through the night to feed her.

Over time, it begins to feel like everything is an “urgent emergency” and needs to be addressed immediately.  This type of constant stressful thinking is never good for anyone especially a caregiver.  Living in a constant state of flux can cause you to forget about what is important.

Organizing the personal health information for those with chronic illness and disability is a “calling of the important”!  Take the time to sit down and begin to organize all of the medical, disease specific, health information for your loved one.  Take the time to list out the medications, the doctors, nurses, and various medical staff that you work with, or what a typical day looks like in caring for them.

When I first started to get things out of my head and down on paper it felt awkward.  I was so used to mentally caring for her.  By putting things down on paper it caused me to slow down.  My head was not running through my mental check list.  I was beginning to take the first step in really being present and a part of her care.  It really did make a difference. I honestly felt a little bit of the load lift.

I did not fill out all of the forms at once or even in one day.  It took some time.  But, each step I took towards getting a handle on her disease, what it meant, and how I was to care for her brought me one step closer to the peace I was searching for and the confidence in myself to actually care for her.  And that brought me one step closer to her; pushing through the layers of illness and disability and seeing Gabrielle in a new light.

I encourage you to take the next step in writing down all of the critical health information.  To purchase one of our Coming Home Medical Organizer products, click on one of the links below:

• Downloadable Version
• CD Version
• Binder Version

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