Another suggestion. Create a timeline. My new pulmonologist was SO grateful to get the one I just created. Although they CAN read the records, if you have been to a number of doctors and they are in different health systems it can be extremely cumbersome. I felt what he needed was a sort of "executive summary" of all of it.
I thought of doing this just a few weeks ago. I thought I would not remember the details and the times when I was given a new diagnosis or new meds. Then I had the bright idea. I asked my pharmacist to make a print out for me of all the meds I have taken since this started in 2011. It was just what I needed. The print out showed me when all my new meds, antibiotics and prednisone etc. had been prescribed and by which doctor. That was enough to prod my memory of what specifically was going on that month. I ended up Creating a table with the information that I thought most relevant. My table has five columns marked like this:
Month/Yr New Respiratory Meds Antibiotics Prednisone Comments
In each column I wrote the appropriate info about the time period and the medication prescribed. I only listed the ashtma meds once as they are ongoing. The antibiotics and prednisone I listed every time they were prescribed.
Under comments, I wrote my symptoms, what the doctor prescribed and any other pertinent info. On the few months where I was not given something new, I would simply leave the med columns blank and under comments I wrote how i was feeling as best as I could remember. NEXT I highlighted the most pertinent phrase in each comment and put it in bold letters. For instance: "Wheezing and cough are worse, in spite of the antibiotic"…that kind of thing. I found I was able to remember pretty accurately based on the meds prescribed that month and also remembering what I was doing that month - visiting my daughter for instance.
Finally, I selected the sections for the 3 months that I was the worst and colored that box yellow.
The whole document gave him a very good, and quick, summary of the details of my case. He was very appreciative.
But - a picture is worth a THOUSAND words - so here is a link to a page on my blog. Miscellaneous « Wanderings…
I have uploaded the chart I made to this page. You are very welcome to use it. I don't want the world to see it - so - any forum member is welcome to send me a private message. I will then give you the password so you can read the chart.
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