Importance of keeping good medical records

Mickey Guisewite, Parent With A Purpose, shares advice for parents of a child with a critical sickness on the importance of keeping a clear record of their treatments and conditions
Pediatric Cancer Advice | Importance Of Keeping Good Medical Records
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Importance of keeping good medical records

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It's extremely important to keep a very clear record of what's going on with your child when he's sick. When you're diagnosed with cancer, you get something that's called a road map, which is a book. It's a treatment book and it has your whole medical schedule of what's going to happen, pretty much by the day. It gives the weeks, when they think he'll be getting the treatment, when he'll be off treatment. But that's just a guide. The reality is, all sorts of things happen. My son sometimes wasn't ready, his body hadn't healed enough to be prepared to take the next treatment. A couple of times in between treatments, he got sick and he to be taken into emergency, and he had to be treated in emergency for a few days. We kept copious notes of every single thing that went on. The hospital has a record but a hospital is a huge place. They don't have the by the minute chart of what's going on with your child. Each department has their own records and people - It's a big place. They don't always coordinate with what's going on. My husband and I felt that we're the only one's that knew exactly what was really happening. It was also important for us, as parents of our son, to be in good communication with each other. My husband often would be the person at night with our son. He would keep very clear notes about what was going on with him. And then when i came during the day, i would look at his notes; I would refer to his notes and then it helped me prepare for the day to be with our son. I would keep notes during the day and then when my husband came at night, it was almost like we were doctors comparing notes, we would compare our charts.

Mickey Guisewite, Parent With A Purpose, shares advice for parents of a child with a critical sickness on the importance of keeping a clear record of their treatments and conditions

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Mickey Guisewite

Parent with a Purpose

Mickey Guisewite is a former advertising executive and syndicated newspaper columnist who started The Bottomless Toy Chest after her son successfully completed cancer treatment. The Bottomless Toy Chest is a nonprofit organization devoted to delivering toys, crafts and hands-on activities to hospitalized pediatric cancer patients. Mickey lives at home with her husband, son, daughter, two dogs, two cats and two turtles. When she’s not delivering toys to sick kids, she’s at home trying to find a tiny space on the couch among her two-legged and four-legged family members. 

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