My Journey... every step of the way.: My Medication Passport.

For life's little ups and downs.

A rather quirky, funny and sometimes daunting look in to the life of someone who has a lot of health problems but does their best to keep positive. Punctuated by guinea pigs, anime, superheroes, transforming robots and cross stitching.

I started this blog to tell my story, about who I am and what I do. On top of the health problems and raising awareness for those, I also use my blog as a way to help promote other causes, particularly ones which affect the most vulnerable. I live with a number of different and complex health problems but I refuse to let anything get me down. I know how it feels to be discriminated against or thrown aside. This is me. This is my life. I live it and do what I want with it. Nature sets the limitations. We set the boundaries.

About Me:

A blog about life. I live with Type 1 Brittle Asthma, Bi-Polar Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as well as Various Allergies, Neutropenia, Crohns Disease (my IBS was rediagnosed as Crohns), Osteo and Rheumatoid Arthritis, PCOS and Osteoporosis and Heredetary Spastic Paraplegia. I have recently also been diagnosed with Sleep Apnea (which makes me stop breathing in my sleep) I live with these conditions, but I refuse to let them keep me down and out. I still try and make the most of my days despite being so poorly and having to rely on my wheelchair, nebulisers, nearly 50 pills a day and 2l/min of oxygen and CPAP.

I'll flap my broken wings and erase it all someday... You'll see.

Saturday 19 April 2014

My Medication Passport.

Going in and out of hospital is a strange, scary state of affairs. The worst part is relinquishing that level of control you have over your own condition. Living with it for as long as I have had to, I have had to learn my own ways around it and ways to make it more tolerable. I was feeling really dejected and frankly discouraged last time I went in (and the time before) when I had to explain on several occasions what I was on, when and how much. As a result, my medication routines got completely jumbled up and it made some symptoms come back and others get worse. It's important that I get the right meds at the right time because of the conditions I have.

After feeling that way, I mentioned on Facebook how I wish there was a way to make this process easier and a friend, Kim Beattie, pointed me in the direction of a free NHS project called "My Medication Passport". This is a booklet that is carried with the patient (or installed on an Android/iOS device) which has all their medical details, next of kin and a comprehensive list of what medications the patient is on and how much and when. It leaves NO ambiguity or guesswork. Its simple and shows the times when certain drugs are taken and the routine.

I admit I was a little dubious at first. The amount of times I have heard horror stories of the hospital "forgetting" to give the patients vital medication despite comprehensive letters from the doctor or anyone else, even in some cases, medication for life threatening conditions had been forgotten or decided they weren't needed. It worries me that this can and does happen. I want to spread the word about the Medication Passport to as many people as I can and see if we can get it rolled out as far as possible (I have already set up contact between the discharge lounge/pharmacy team at the Alex and the large Lloyds Pharmacy with the people responsible for it and hope that they will be distributing them in future, particularly for patients who go in and out on a regular basis.)

I just think that this is a great idea. If anyone is interested in the "Medication Passport" please contact me via my email or via Facebook and I would be happy to have one posted out to you.

Loves

Wendy xx

1 comment:

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Thanks for your comment. I will review it as soon as possible!

So, what is this blog?

This is a blog about my life and what I do. Sometimes its witty and others it can be quite serious, but I feel that sometimes the steps you take in life are the building blocks for the future. I try and at least keep a positive outlook on things because sometimes that can be enough to get you through. So, come and delve in to this crazy, spontaneous and sometimes scary world of mine.

Named as one of Healthline's best Asthma blogs of 2013, 2014, 2015 AND 2016.