Okay…so with 8 people in the family I dread the doctors question, "When was the last time your daughter had strep throat?" (or any other illness, for that matter).
How the heck am I supposed to remember with 6 kids? THEY ALL GET IT! One starts it off and then the rest are sick for weeks. It's a month before I can surface again and resume normal life. If it's a stomach virus…don't get me started.
We had to treat our entire family for scabies one time (contracted from our pet rat…who is no longer our pet…animal rights people, hate me). I took an entire household of linens and clothes to the Laundromat. $65 later and $300 worth of medicine for 3 weeks x 8 people, we were cured. I decided years ago that I needed a better system.
Here's the log.
I won't show the pages because you'd fall over dead to see how many times we go to the doctor in 1 year.
This was done very quickly and I'm still using it. It's one of my not-so Pretty Organizers.
- I divide the notebook into sections.
- Every family member gets their own page.
- Every time my kids get a prescription or have a major event, I write the date and a short note of what it was for.
- I use the stickers that Walgreen's or CVS gives you with your prescription and stick them to the entry so I know exactly what was prescribed and in what dose… this helps if the medication needs to be changed.
- After several years we have a pretty comprehensive medical history that I can proudly recite when a doctor asks me. I can even tell him what he prescribed!
Now when I go to the doctor, I take my log (at the risk of looking like the world's biggest dork).
When the doctor asks his questions, I flip to the correct kid and watch him gasp. Then I wait for his eyes to pop back in his head and give him the full medical history of my child's ailments. Without fail, I walk out of the doctor's office a model maternal patient. It's really too bad they don't hand chocolate out to the moms for keeping good records.
And, do you think he wonders if I KNOW what I'm talking about? Ever? Nope. Can't argue with a mama that has year's worth of correct diagnoses and evidence in front of her.
Image Credit: Pretty Organizer's Family
Loading ...
This is a fabulous idea! I'm totally "stealing" it!
wonderful idea, thank you! The link to Pretty Organized's website is not working above, could someone link me up?
those links should be working now. enjoy!
I am a big user of binders. I don't have a family yet but I used one for my little dog and everytime I went to the vet I put the papers in the binder. That way when they had a question I knew the answer. I started it for me and my husband too…i started a medical binder in which I put all of our insurance information and doctors info. I find it very useful and easy to find the information I need!
Oh my your family looks like I am praying for mine to look. We would like to have 4 biological and 2 adopted from Africa, or even if I have to do it vice versa.
This is a great tool. Sometimes the answers are simple.