Chronic Living Blog

As a person with chronic illness, you see a lot of doctors. You give the same information and retell your story many times to a variety of specialists. It can be exhausting trying to remember everything accurately.

Be proactive and put together a folder to take to your appointments. In that folder, keep a med list, diagnosis list, dates of procedures and medical events.

Click the Printables link for some templates that you can download!

Here are some things that will make your visit go smoother with any provider:

• A good history including any childhood injuries, rehab, IEPs, 504, adaptive tools given to you, illnesses, surgeries, and injuries.
• Talk about the things you’re doing to adapt your lifestyle like braces, inactivity, diet changes, etc. Leave nothing out.
• Write it down in a document so you don’t forget important things when the time comes.
• Medications including dose and reason and ordering providers. Talk about medications you can’t tolerate and your reactions.
• Either have a copy or contact information to your labs and images.
• Keep a personal copy of all medical records! You wouldn’t believe how often providers lose things or things don’t get communicated.
• When it is complicated, it helps to keep a spreadsheet to keep everything organized. If this is too hard, just throw it in a document or note app.