Thank you. This particular blog warranted my changing from a one month trial to a yearly subscriber. I don't know how many of your readers are medical folks or, like me, people who have had way too many encounters with the medical profession necessitating learning the lingo to be able to succinctly communicate as well as understanding what I need to communicate. For me, it's not my personal medical issues but loved ones. The first major go around, my husband had Burkitt's lymphoma and we experienced a deep learning curve as we struggled through the many complications. Unfortunately, despite everyone's best efforts, the disease won.
Flash forward many years, and my current husband has also been diagnosed with lymphoma, this time DLBCL. Previous knowledge is both helpful and terrifying, and ER visits are not unusual as unknown infections, generically called neutropenic fever, rear their ugly head. We have now completed, hopefully, chemo and he insists on a winter sojourn south for a month. I simultaneously understand the need to try to have some semblance of a "normal" life and am terrified should we need an ER in place that doesn't know us.
Reading and re-reading this particular blog helps me to understand what information I need to have available in a one-page summary form, including his meds and a very short history. While not in adorable little old lady handwriting, it's given me a little piece of mind to have just the important information ready to give them -- and I'll have more of his medical information should it be requested/needed.
Last, as a caregiver, thank you for the word that I somehow previously missed learning about: Delirium. It perfectly describes what I witness. And that is somehow comforting to know it's a "thing".
Thanks, Sue! Hopefully your husband will soon be in remission/cured, which a majority of patients with DLBCL do achieve. But indeed the chemo will knock out the immune system and neutropenic fever is the issue. The good news is that the ER lingo of "DLBCL with neutropenic fever" is basically easy for us to interpret. I'd get an infectious workup including labs (including a lactate), blood cultures, a chest xray, at a minimum--looking for signs that could indicate brewing sepsis.
Most ER docs will "get that." But bringing a discharge summary from the most recent hospitalization or ER visit is often another great resource to show a doctor/ER outside of your usual system.
Thank you writing your blog which is always informative and often very entertaining too.
Regarding your email about drugs and the elderly. I am a senior citizen ( very senior) who has no memory issues except for remembering the name of the restaurant I ate in last week. 😊
BUT here is a request to the drug industry. Often when I pick up a ( generic) prescription the manufacturer has been changed. In some cases the pill looks the same but is half the size yet it’s the same dose. ( eg Meloxicam). Sometimes it’s changed so it almost matches another pill I take.
Surely drug manufacturers could agree on generic drug sizes and colors for drugs sold in US. And some of my friends were surprised you can identify a drug by putting the description into a web site, perhaps the subject of another blog post.
Thank you for the work you do; I always look forward to your emails.
I carry in my wallet a “Medical Emergency Card” which is actually printed on regular paper but formatted to be credit card width. It has my ICE info, blood type, NKDA, the fact that I’m an organ donor, and signed/dated permission to treat. Then I list all my medications and supplements (in alpha order, with dose and timing), diagnoses, surgical history, and vaccinations. I also have a separate list of medications by time taken, which I’ve found to be very helpful for hospital pharmacists on those occasions when I’ve been admitted. Anything I’ve missed that should go on this “card “?
Thank you. This particular blog warranted my changing from a one month trial to a yearly subscriber. I don't know how many of your readers are medical folks or, like me, people who have had way too many encounters with the medical profession necessitating learning the lingo to be able to succinctly communicate as well as understanding what I need to communicate. For me, it's not my personal medical issues but loved ones. The first major go around, my husband had Burkitt's lymphoma and we experienced a deep learning curve as we struggled through the many complications. Unfortunately, despite everyone's best efforts, the disease won.
Flash forward many years, and my current husband has also been diagnosed with lymphoma, this time DLBCL. Previous knowledge is both helpful and terrifying, and ER visits are not unusual as unknown infections, generically called neutropenic fever, rear their ugly head. We have now completed, hopefully, chemo and he insists on a winter sojourn south for a month. I simultaneously understand the need to try to have some semblance of a "normal" life and am terrified should we need an ER in place that doesn't know us.
Reading and re-reading this particular blog helps me to understand what information I need to have available in a one-page summary form, including his meds and a very short history. While not in adorable little old lady handwriting, it's given me a little piece of mind to have just the important information ready to give them -- and I'll have more of his medical information should it be requested/needed.
Last, as a caregiver, thank you for the word that I somehow previously missed learning about: Delirium. It perfectly describes what I witness. And that is somehow comforting to know it's a "thing".
Thanks, Sue! Hopefully your husband will soon be in remission/cured, which a majority of patients with DLBCL do achieve. But indeed the chemo will knock out the immune system and neutropenic fever is the issue. The good news is that the ER lingo of "DLBCL with neutropenic fever" is basically easy for us to interpret. I'd get an infectious workup including labs (including a lactate), blood cultures, a chest xray, at a minimum--looking for signs that could indicate brewing sepsis.
Most ER docs will "get that." But bringing a discharge summary from the most recent hospitalization or ER visit is often another great resource to show a doctor/ER outside of your usual system.
Glad you've joined us :)
Thank you for the confirmation about bringing the most recent discharge summary. That's what a local doctor suggested as well.
It's a great addition. Good thinking!
Thank you writing your blog which is always informative and often very entertaining too.
Regarding your email about drugs and the elderly. I am a senior citizen ( very senior) who has no memory issues except for remembering the name of the restaurant I ate in last week. 😊
BUT here is a request to the drug industry. Often when I pick up a ( generic) prescription the manufacturer has been changed. In some cases the pill looks the same but is half the size yet it’s the same dose. ( eg Meloxicam). Sometimes it’s changed so it almost matches another pill I take.
Surely drug manufacturers could agree on generic drug sizes and colors for drugs sold in US. And some of my friends were surprised you can identify a drug by putting the description into a web site, perhaps the subject of another blog post.
Thank you for the work you do; I always look forward to your emails.
Diane
I carry in my wallet a “Medical Emergency Card” which is actually printed on regular paper but formatted to be credit card width. It has my ICE info, blood type, NKDA, the fact that I’m an organ donor, and signed/dated permission to treat. Then I list all my medications and supplements (in alpha order, with dose and timing), diagnoses, surgical history, and vaccinations. I also have a separate list of medications by time taken, which I’ve found to be very helpful for hospital pharmacists on those occasions when I’ve been admitted. Anything I’ve missed that should go on this “card “?