Doctors Offices Are Always Like BE ON TIME IF YOU'RE MORE THAN FIVE MINUTES LATE WE'LL EXILE YOU TO MARS

Medical Binder

You need a three ring binder. And sheet protectors. And tabs. “Why?”

‘Cause you need a medical binder.

What is a medical binder? A place that you store your medical information paperwork. All of it.

Why should I have this? Documentation. Insurance and medical care are all about documentation. If it’s not in writing, it didn’t happen and doesn’t exist. Why can’t you do it electronically? Because the internet can be compromised. No one can hack a piece of paper from a thousand miles away. Having a copy of your medical records means you have easy access to talk to a new doctor and get them up to speed.

For my fellow chronic illness people, this is what keeps you from going batsh*t insane if you see a new doctor or need to go to the hospital.

What should go in it?

Medical Records: This is a copy of whatever records you have from whatever appointments/visits you go to. Have a check-up? Get a printed copy. Have lab work run? Get a printed copy of records. ER visit? Printed copy. Surgery? Printed copy. Vaccine? Printed copy. I recommend having documentation going back at least five years. Include lists of any medications you’ve taken, along with start/stop dates. This is ideally a catch-all of everything you would want to tell a brand new doctor so they can immediately pick up where your last doctor left off. If you have chronic illnesses, this is where you want to include a history of it. Diagnosis, medications and treatments that have worked and not worked, and all symptoms/progressions you’ve noticed.

Medical Bills: Did you pay a bill? Print a copy of the receipt? Did you get a bill? Save it and then add the receipt after you pay it. Collections notice? Financial Hardship paperwork? Payment plan agreements? Print and add here.

Insurance Paperwork A copy of your ID card, a copy of your summary plan document, and any copies of your claims. Print it and save it.

Misc. Anything else related to your healthcare/bills that you could need. If you think in five years there is the remote possibility you could need this specific piece of paper, print it and save it.

These documents are important to have. If you're in an accident and you have everything on hand (or can have someone bring you everything), you're already ten steps ahead. Otherwise, your new doctor has to have you sign a HIPAA form for every single doctor you've ever seen so they can send your records to be reviewed blah blah blah. The main point is that process is time consuming and frustrating. Save everyone (and yourself) the headache.

Some people don’t want to hear this but sometimes accessibility is not sustainable or eco-friendly. Disabled people sometimes need straws, or pre-made meals in plastic containers, or single-use items. Just because you can work with your foods in their least processed and packaged form doesn’t mean everyone else can.

There was a TikTok of an (American) woman who was documenting her husband’s ICU room and expressing displeasure with the state it was in, it was generally unclean with broken equipment, rust stains, clipped flooring, things that can make a medical environment unsafe. I opened the comments expecting people to be like “Wow, that’s scary. And a huge infection risk. ICU stays often cost patients upwards of $100k and not enough of that money is going to maintenance and cleaning.” But instead it was nurses being utterly vile to this woman. Not saying “You’re right, it’s terrible that we’re forced to do our jobs in unsafe, unclean and outdated environments.” they were telling her she was a prime example of why patients’ families were the worst part of their job.

The hospital that charged my insurance $87k for a single endoscopy & colonoscopy performed on me was recently fined for having dirty equipment. If not on sanitation, if not on giving nurses and providers better wages, if not on updating the facility, where the hell did that money go? If nurses could band together to attack and criticize hospital administration and the American medical system in the way they band together to attack and criticize patients and advocates online, all of our lives could improve.

But of course it is easier to raise the sword against the vulnerable person dependent on your care, on the people often experiencing the worst day of their life when they are too frightened and in pain to treat you with courtesy. It’s easier to lash out at the patient inquiring about their medication after waiting two hours than to lash out at the people responsible for making you responsible for 30 patients at once.

I don’t think anyone blames nurses for hospital rooms being nasty. It’s not their job. It’s the job of custodial staff and maintenance. It’s the job of administration to fund those departments. It’s a problem at the top. If we could all look upwards instead of down when it comes to who we criticize and blame, we could make progress.

My face is having uncontrollable spasms. Great. It hurts really, really, really bad.

I think part of why I have trouble explaining pain to the doctor is when they ask about the pain scale I always think “Well, if someone threw me down a flight of stairs right now or punched me a few times, it would definitely hurt a lot more” so I end up saying a low number. I was reading an article that said that “10” is the most commonly reported number and that is baffling to me. When I woke up from surgery with an 8" incision in my body and I could hardly even speak, I was in the most horrific pain of my life but I said “6” because I thought “Well, if you hit me in the stomach, it would be worse.”

and ibs otter, which i made mostly for me lol. i really want her name to start with cy…. cypres…. cyril….. hmm

PSA as we go into spooky season and people start using activated charcoal to make foods look spooky.

Everyone with gi issues deserves a kiss on the forehead right now

April is IBS Awareness Month. If you have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), you are not alone – IBS is common with prevalence estimated at 10% to 15%. Yet many people remain undiagnosed and unaware that their symptoms indicate a medically recognized disorder.