Be Prepared Organize your Health

Have you wondered about what if? I use to wonder what if all the time. What if something happened to my son and no one knew what his allergies were? Now that he is older and has grown out of “his situation” I have become lax. But now we have to go into that what if stage again. My son is getting older and this summer will be in another state without me (Mom). So how am I going to prepare him for that just in case possibility? I am going to prepare my son by organizing and filling in a Medic Tag so he can put it on his key ring and have his health records with him all the time. I will feel a little more at ease. Of course I will text, email and talk with him more then he probably needs but for that just in case, I will and he will be prepared by being organized.

Medic Tag

MedicTag is the original USB medic alert tag designed for emergency medic information and alert.

Medical alert bracelets, medic ID tags and medi alert jewelry have limited information available. A MedicTag USB medical alert and medic ID tag stores and has instant access to all your medical and emergency information.

In an emergency your medical information is critical to an accurate, timely and possibly life saving diagnosis.

MedicTag is a digital USB personal medical alert and information device that combines your emergency information with today’s technology. A digital memory chip is used to store all your information on the easy to use MedicTag medical history and alert form and the distinctive styling and bright logo will alert medic personnel to your special needs and existing medical conditions.

MedicTag is useful for many conditions including

• ADD/ADHD
• Anemia
• Ankylosing Spondylitis
• Asthma
• Autism
• Blood thinners – Coumadin, warfarin
• Cancer patients
• Cardiac patients
• Cerebral Palsy
• Clinical trial patients
• Diabetes
• Emphysema

• Epilepsy, seizures
• Food, insect and medicine allergies
• Hearing, sight and mentally impaired
• Hypertension
• Mental health patients
• Multiple medications
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Rare diseases
• Special needs children
• Stroke risk
• Surgery, transplant patients

And caregivers for people who live with many of these conditions

Healthcare providers must often either start from scratch or act blindly because they don’t have the patient’s relevant past history, allergies, or medications.

With MedicTag, safety of care will be improved as patients and doctors benefit from immediate access to the patients’ list of conditions, medications and dosages, allowing all parties to avoid the sometimes dangerous duplication of medications and other kinds of errors associated with incomplete information.

MedicTag is simple to use. Plug it into the USB port on your computer to start the program, there is nothing to install, it’s all on the MedicTag. Fill in the blanks with as much, or as little information as you need, click on “save” and you are done.

It requires very little computer skill to use, on most systems it is “plug and play” and is a simple fill in the blanks format. It is compatible with 99.9% of the home and office computer systems in use today and requires only Windows and MS Word to fill out the information form. And no special software is needed to read it, all Windows operating systems include WordPad which can read the information form.

You can also change your information, medications, doctors and any other health information whenever you need to so your information is always easy to keep up to date.

Convenient  and easy to carry on a key ring you can keep it with you all the time. FEMA and the Red Cross both recommend that your emergency information, including medications and emergency contacts, be part of your disaster preparation kit. In case of an emergency evacuation due to hurricane or flood that information is much more likely to be available if you have it on your key ring.

Are you the caregiver for an aging loved one or other family member? Medic Tag can consolidate all their medical information into one form that’s easy to access.

I always think about the peace of knowing that your personal health infomation is at hand anytime ready to be used in case of an emergency, basically organized. I also believe this peace would make a wonderful gift to your loved ones or yourself. But, as a read an article I realized that this sense of peace should and could be taken a step further.

Having your life in order is something we should all do but having our end of life written and plans set as to not make this a burden on our families is also the sense of peace that would make for a wonderful present that will have a huge impact in the future. Please read Mom’s Gift Is a Gift You Can Give Your Loved Ones, Too by Trisha Torrey. In the article you will be able to click on a link to help you find all the documentation you will need.

The Ultimate Gift, leaving your children with the sense of peace by giving them a plan of your wishes. Set up your DNR, Health Care Proxy and Organ Donor Status. Find information here. Sometimes the gift is just in the palnning.

Whats on your holiday wish list this year?

When giving a gift to someone with health issues a practical gift can truly be a life saving present.

Organizing your health as been made simple with Jakoter Health Organizer and the Medic Tag .

Fill in the blanks provided and keep your medical information updated.

Other great holiday gifts:

Achoo Allergy is a great place to shop for allergy people. Peanut, airborne you name it. They have a gift for you!

Mario Badescu Skin Care is the place for anyone with sensitive skin. Try the rose spray or the egg shampoo.

To Health and Happiness!

Medical Information Organizing

Medical information organizing sounds agonizing! Well, really it is not as anguishing as it sounds. Just follow these steps and you will be well on your way to having your health organized in case of an emergency.

•  If possible grab an already made health organizer or flash drive to save time.

•  Once you do have your health organized, make the most of it!

o Make copies of your medication list and bring it with you to your appointments.

o Bring your questions to your healthcare visits.

o Keep your organizer/flash drive updated.

•  Take time to make yourself safe if something should happen.

Medical information you should keep organized.

Important Information – If you do just one thing do this page! Take it with you if you need to go to the emergency room or an acute care center.
Write/type your name, date of birth, health conditions, allergies, surgeries, medications and person to contact in an emergency and any other important information, so that if needed there is a one-page overview of yourself or loved one. Put anything you feel is important in…ANYTHING!!!

Medication – Write/type a list of the medications you are taking, what dose, when you take them and what you take the medication for for. The start date of the medication is also helpful.

Insurance Information – Write/type down your insurance company’s phone number, your group or policy number, address, and anything else pertinent to your insurance. If you have supplemental insurance that should be included as well.

Emergency Numbers – Write/type your important phone numbers, i.e. ICE (in case of emergency) Keep these updated!

Family History - Filling this out might be tedious, but once it is recorded, you will always have it for future reference. Make sure that you keep it updated.

Major Events – A major event can be a broken bone, surgery, or a trip to the urgent care center for any reason. Write/type your major events for easy reference.

Immunizations - Keep track of your last flu, tetanus and all immunizations. Your doctor’s office should still have records.

Appointments – Keep a running list of your appointments, (date, who, why and the results).

Questions & Answers – You know how everyone is telling you what to ask? Now give yourself a place to write/type it out before you get to your appointment. Make sure you get your answers. Write/type these out for reference as well.

Notes – Remember to date your notes.

Feel Charts – These can be headaches records, long illnesses, pain, moods, or even food charts. Remember to date your charts!

Blood Work – Diagnostic Test Results You can ask your healthcare provider for a copy! Highlight dates and anything unusual. The doctor’s office should still have a copy, but it is useful if you are referred to another office to have your own copy. Type the place and information in your flash drive if you are using one and/or place the hard copy results in your health organizer.

Remember this is your information, recorded your way, so that you can understand it.

September is National Preparedness Month sponsored by U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Ready Campaign, please visit ready.gov. Be prepared with your health as well as everything else in your life!

By Sheila Warnock
WHO TAKES CARE OF THE CAREGIVER?

People facing a medical crisis try to “circle the wagons” and tough it out. The result is usually caregiver burnout. While the doctors, nurses, therapists and medical community take care of the patient and the illness, the needs of the caregiver are often overlooked. Who will drive the kids to school? How can we get the shopping done? How do we schedule and keep doctors’ appointments? Ordinary tasks quickly turn into major needs-and soon overwhelm the primary caregiver.

There is a way to make a difference…SHARE THE CARE^TM

Share The Care is a cost effective, supportive, community-based group caregiving model born out of the experience of 12 people (mostly strangers to each other) who came together and stayed together for over three years to care for a friend with terminal cancer. Two of them wrote the book so others wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel.
It’s called Share The Care, How to Organize a Group to Care for Someone Who Is Seriously Ill, Simon & Schuster (1995, 2004)

Share The Care details how ordinary people can pool their talents, time and resources and create a “caregiving family” to help someone they know facing a health or medical crisis. A Share The Care group supports not only the person in need but their entire family as well. And if someone has no family nearby the group becomes “family.” It’s a sure way of turning offers of “What can I do to help?” into positive action.

A Share The Care group can help regardless of the situation-whether the person (or child) is in need of short-term rehabilitation, suffering from a long-term or terminal illness, or someone is just facing the increased difficulties associated with aging. For example, a church group in Texas recently organized to help a new family in town with the care of their newborn quadruplets.

The model has served as a blueprint for groups in at least 38 states, as well as internationally in Canada, Iceland, and Israel. In May 2005, The Library Journal cited it as “One of the best consumer health books of 2004.” Share The Care is also a winner of Today’s Caregiver magazine’s 2008 Caregiver Friendly Award.

The mission of ShareThecaregiving, Inc. (a 501c3 organization) is to promote and educate people about group caregiving. We offer Share The Care trainings, lectures and customized workshops for health professionals, clergy and caregivers. Our web site www.sharethecare.org provides in-depth information about the model. Visitors can read about groups, find helpful resources, link to purchase the book, download all the forms in the book, and provide feedback on their experiences through a questionnaire. We offer weekday e-mail, and phone support to caregivers and health professionals.

Donations can be made through Network for Good on our web site. Your gifts help us cover the costs of producing our educational materials. And we’d love to know if you start a Share The Care group to help someone in need.

by Laura Heuer
Expert Health Organizer Consultant

Prescription Drugs have been said to be the “new drug” on the street. So how do we dispose of unwanted prescription medication safely?

I did some searching and here is what I found. In my area there does not seem to be a place to take your medication. I called the pharmacy, the local doctors office and they said to put your old medication in the garbage. I still suggest contacting your local pharmacy and doctor offices and see if they would take your old medication so that it can be disposed of properly. But, if the answer is what I received “no” then here are some guidelines that I found.

1) Do not put your unwanted medicines in the waterway-down the toilet or sink.

2) I found two schools of thought on this, either take your pills out of the original container so no one will be able to identify that these are pills or keep the pills in the original container and use a permanent market to mark out your name and prescription number. The original container is for safety.

2) If your container contains pills, add water or soda to start dissolving the pills. If your container is liquid, add cat litter, saw dust or flour to make it inedible.

3) Tape the container closed with good tape. Duct tape or packing tape.

4) Put these bottles in another container that is not see through and tape this container closed as well.

5) Hide in the trash.

6) That should do it. There still seem to be a better way. If you have a wonderful solution please find a way to make it happen in your community.

Please go to www.jakoter.com for organizing your health journeys and for expert medical advocacy and consulting.

Why Must We Keep Our Own Health and Medical Records
If you ask CK Wilde why she thinks you should keep your own medical records she will tell you:
Reason Number 1 – Medical Records Get Lost or Destroyed
Reason Number 2 – Memory Fails & Doctors’ Notes are Impossible to Read
Reason Number 3 – Doctors Don’t Always Communicate With Each Other
To Read the whole post please click here 3GenFamily Blog
While you are there, please check out all the other wonderful articles that have been written and posted.

Waiting Room Material

By Laura Heuer

Expert Health Organizer Consultant

So you sit in the waiting room…. Are you prepared? Prepared for what, you might ask? If you are in a waiting room or in the actual doctors office you should be prepared. Here are a few simple steps you can take to ensure a better visit.

• Write out your questions-if you have not done this prior to your office visit go ahead and do it while you are waiting.

•  Write out your symptoms and be specific – again if you have not done this prior to your office visit do this now while you are waiting.

• Write out your medications – you will always be ask what medications are you taking and what dose.

You may think you can wing it and of course you can but what happens when you wing anything? It just does not have as good as an outcome as it could have. Lets face it our health should be a higher priority then that.

The Medical Group Management Association says the average patient wait time is 15 minutes. The time spent with the doctor is on average 20 minutes.

Be fully prepared for your visit, your health is so important to you and to your loved ones.

If you are a long time patient and always waiting here is a way to past some of the time, click on the how to draw the impossible triangle and print if you wish. No drawing skills necessary.

How to Draw an Impossible Triangle

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit

The “rule of three”, where arrangements of triplets have a pleasing effect on the eye, makes this triangle an intriguing shape to ponder and to create. It appears frequently in the art of MC Escher. It is also known as a Penrose triangle or tribar.

Steps

Method 1

1. Sketch an equilateral triangle. This will be the center of your triangle.
2. Lightly sketch two parallel lines outside one side of the triangle. The lines should be equally spaced. Take caution that your lines are drawn straight.
3. Do this for each of the other two sides. Your sketch should look like three triangles nested together.
4. Choose one side of the “center” triangle. Extend one end of that straight line until it reaches the “middle” triangle.
5. Find the same side of the “middle” triangle. Extend one end of that straight line, in the same direction as before, until it reaches the “outside” triangle.
6. Repeat steps for the other two sides of the triangle.
7. Erase short segments so that the triangle begins to look three-dimensional rather than flat. Each edge of this “3-D” shape should look like a reverse “L”.
8. Add short segments at an angle in the corners. These short segments will finish off the outside points.
9. Cleanup your drawing by erasing the points outside of the short segments drawn in the previous step.
10. Add shading if desired.

Method 2

1. Draw a triangle and extend the ends of the lines past where they join.
2. Draw lines from these tips, extending them beyond the corners of the inner triangle.
3. Draw in the ‘corners’.
4. Draw in the final long lines to connect the corners.

Tips

• After you learn this basic optical illusion, you can experiment with more complex arrangements.

Related wikiHows

• How to Draw an Impossible Cube
• How to Draw an Impossible Cube with a Highlighter
• How to Draw an Impossible Cube Using a Pencil
• How to Draw the Triforce

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Draw an Impossible Triangle. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

What is a Professional Health Organizer Consultant?

By Laura Heuer
Expert Health Organizer Consultant

At the bottom of each of our blog post you will see the below caption.

Contact Jakoter @ 847-719-2054 or www.jakoter.com for products that will assist you in organizing your emergency and everyday health needs, for a Professional Consultant to help organize your health journeys and for expert medical advocacy and consulting.

What exactly is a Professional Consultant? Good question!
With so many professional labels and consulting firms I think we should clarify this a bit.

Jakoter has products that do a great job to organize YOUR health. Sometimes though YOUR health can be way to complicated or you just may not be feeling up to the task depending on your situation. That is when a Jakoter Health Organizer Consultants can help. Jakoter Health Organizer Consultants (JHOC, for future reference throughout the article) consist of individuals or businesses that are mostly comprised of Professional Organizers. They know how to organize your information clearly, although they are not medical professionals. The JHOC are taking virtual seminars to learn about how all our products and services work to best fit your needs.
The best part is that we are not just in one location! Call us and see if we can help you where you reside.

Why is this a benefit?

Situation one-You have just been blessed with a set of twins, yet you already have three children and now you are in need of a little help. A Jakoter Health Organizer Consultant can help you organize your new babies’ health records, the rest of your families records, and how about that spare room that really is needed now? Let’s get that organized!

Situation two- your Mom has been diagnosed with diabetes. New food, new doctors, new medications and a new routine. You live three hours away. Call a JHOC to help get you and your Mom on the right track.

Situation three- you really cannot handle the hospital paper work, the bills, you are just not ready yet. We understand, but the bills keep coming anyway. Call us.

Other situations

Seminars
Workshops
Fundraising at Walks, Runs
Expos

Call us 847-719-2054
Email us info@jakoter.com
Visit our web site www.jakoter.com