Paper Doll on the Smead Podcast: How To Get Organized When You Have a Chronic Illness
It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. ~Mahatma Gandhi
You’ve heard me say it before: being organized can’t always prevent emergencies, but it can make catastrophes less catastrophic. In the past, we’ve talked about all the ways to organize for medical emergencies and put plans in place to create a softer landing when things go wrong. Other classic posts have looked at solutions for organizing your health information (a topic Paper Doll intends to update in the coming months).
Vital Signs: Organizing For A Medical Emergency–Part 1
Vital Signs: Gathering Information During/After A Medical Emergency–Part 2
Vital Signs: Maintaining Your Family’s Medical Records–Part 1 (Paper)
Vital Signs: Maintaining Your Family’s Medical Records–Part 2 (Digital)
A lot has happened since I wrote those posts in 2009 after my own medical emergency experiences. For example, in 2011, I was diagnosed with diabetes, and became active in DiabetesSisters, a support group for women, and now serve on the board of directors for Partners and Peers for Diabetes Care, a Chattanooga-based non-profit.
Then, a little over a year ago, Paper Mommy had a freak conflagration while stripping and changing the bed, seriously dented an upstairs wall, and ended up wrapped in plaster and with her neck in a brace. Although always amusing, she was not amused.
The great lady healed well, thank goodness, although she couldn’t drive for five months. Then scarily, she had unexpected surgery in August, and a long recovery (none of which prevented her from keeping hospital staff and visiting nurses in stitches (if you’ll pardon the pun)). Paper Mommy‘s experiences, along with those of many of my clients with diabetes, MS, lupus, and other chronic conditions, increased my interest in looking at the factors that go into organizing to make life easier when our health fails us for longer than the duration of the flu.
In the last few weeks, I sat down with the wonderful John Hunt for Smead‘s Keeping You Organized video podcast to chat about this very topic. For anyone who has read the Paper Doll blog before, you know that brevity is not my greatest strength, and I had so much to share that our conversation extended to two podcast installments. Take a peek:
How to Get Organized When You Have a Chronic or Extended Illness: Part 1
How to Get Organized When You Have a Chronic or Extended Illness: Part 2
If organizing fascinates you (and why wouldn’t it?) and you like going down a rabbit hole (in a good way!), clicking to watch one video podcast after another, you might want to head to the Smead Keeping You Organized podcast page for each of the two shows:
Once you’re on those pages, you can even opt for the audio-only version of the podcasts, in case you want to take us with you while you’re running errands in the car (or just plain running).
Over the course of 2018, you’re likely to see me post more often about issues that relate to organizing and health issues, including topics like:
- How to organize your home to support your health and recovery
- How to organize your tangible resources, like medications and medical devices, to maximize efficiency, including key strategies and innovating storage solutions
- The importance of health-related legal documents like health care proxies and medical directives
- Ways to evaluate your options for organizing, storing, accessing, and sharing your medical information
- How to use health portals to access your medical information
- Tools for organizing your health-related finances
- Ways to save money and stretch your health-care dollars
- How to organize resources for emotional support
- Getting support for caregivers and family members
After you watch the videos, let me know in the comments if there are healthcare-related organizing questions you’d like answered or topics you wish to see covered in the blog.
Until next time, I wish you good health!
Paper Doll Post:
I love that the great people over at Smead invited you to address this topic. It is very complicated, and often we are dealing with so many difficulties in the middle of a crisis. Doing what we can to get things in order before the emergency happens certainly helps! I have so many friends whose parents have fallen or encountered medical issues and they are trying to dig through paperwork to figure it all out, while also finding rehab places and ordering furniture and trying to connect with doctors… we all need help on this one!