In case of emergency forms

Some of the printable forms links in the CP101 no longer work, but are a darn good idea. I know from the experience I had with my new doctor, the more details you can give, the better. In an emergency, 1 sheet with your major diagnoses and meds, with emergency contact info you can put in your wallet can help to a large degree.

Or you can set up a separate account at google, if you already have one, and put all of your information there, without your name or other identifiers, just meds and diagnoses. Just carry a card in your wallet with the username and password to the emergency only google account, and label it In Case Of Emergency. If you do it this way, the documents can be updated if your meds change or you get a new or different treatment plan or doctor. Plus, if you have a scanner, you can scan any documents you feel necessary, and load them to google documents as well.

I was thinking about putting one together, knowing what I know from EMT's, and what doctors need to know, especially if you have a complicated case history, and especially if you are taking a lot of heavy meds, then posting that link here when I'm done. It may help some people. I know there are ICE or In Case Of Emergency apps for mobile phones, but that's assuming you have your phone available, and it's still operable after an emergency. The phone itself could be under something or hard to find, like in a car accident, the battery could be damaged or dead, or the screen could be damaged.

I'm thinking brief medical history (previous diagnoses, surgeries, injuries), emergency contact info (family, friends (at least 4), including all of your other doctors and your insurance information), a medications list form (including pharmacies and their phone #s), and a normal pain assessment guide.

These are things you can also print out and bring to your first appointment with a new doctor, or if you have previous CT or MRI films in your possession, you can save it all to 1 or more CD-Rom or a Flash Drive (a 32 GB flash drive can be found at Walmart for 25 bucks) to take with you. It's better than sitting in the waiting room and wracking your brain trying to remember a name you don't have on your cell phone. You can look it up and research it ahead of time, print it out, and use it as reference for the forms you have to fill out. Then you can give the full report to your doctor, and he can ask questions from there.

I can make them PDF or .txt files that are cross compatible with any operating system, any computer can open, and you can basically have a traveling medical history that any doctor with a computer can print up or pull up, especially if you are injured or otherwise unable to communicate, and have no one there to communicate for you. And I can condense the major stuff to one page you can print out and put in your wallet. You could also have instructions on it directing emergency personnel to check the locations for the emergency disc with your full medical info on it as well. (glove compartment or next to your medications (with the location of your meds) would be good places for it, or make more than one. Blank CDs are cheap). Have it clearly labeled, and they will take it with you to the hospital.

Would that be of interest to anyone? The whole point of this is to make it easier for medical personnel to figure out what's wrong and treat appropriately if you are uncommunicative for whatever reason, and you don't have someone available who knows your medical history.

What I'm offering is a template - should have been more clear on that. Fill out the stuff on the template, and save it either onto a blank CD, or on Google Docs, and print a hard copy.

Well, actually I was thinking of it for general use, not just CP. Any of the diseases on these boards could benefit from it, really as could the general public. There are a lot of things that people need to think about before an emergency that completely slip their minds during, especially dosages of meds, and previous injuries or hospitalizations, if they aren't in the same hospital where they were treated before. If you have a chance to think about and research the stuff ahead of time, like writing down a previous DX, it makes treatment that much faster and more effective.

I'm thinking of something like a DIY medic-alert bracelet type thing. Instead of calling an 800 number, you put everything on a CD.

I trained as an EMT. I worked with a bunch of them. If there's a card or letter in the wallet saying there's a full medical history available and nearby, and exactly where to find it, they will grab it and bring it to the hospital with the patient.

The letter in the wallet with the very basic info is great for EMT's and first responders. EMTs/Paramedics are there to stabilize and transport. They need to know about allergies, current diagnoses, and recent (within the last year) surgeries, and chronic illnesses or injuries to stabilize.

Doctors, the ones in the ER and with access to computers, need to be able to dig deeper and diagnose, and being able to access that from a CD or thumb drive, including the names of your other doc(s), full history, especially if you have previous films available to you that they can compare in the event of trauma, even previous lab results to compare are very useful during the diagnostic stage.

I think this is an excellent idea, LC! I would definitely be interested. I'm a bit of a techie and have a thumb drive or two laying around that I could use.