Always Gather Your Medical Records As You Go

I've been on the phone with various doctor's offices in the past few days and this entire experience has made me realize how important it is to gather your medical records AS YOU GO. My pediatrician said that '84 birthdays have been destroyed and that my next best bet was to call the doctor's office I transferred to after them. Well that office has NO idea whether those records are there or not unless they pull them from storage. Pulling them from storage involves a fee, about 2 weeks of time and who knows what other hassles.

If I ever have children, I'll be sure to keep all of their medical records on file for them. That way when they get older, I'll be able to hand them over to them after high school for future reference and they won't have to go through all of this.

You never know when you'll need to look through you or your child's records. As a parent you'll be more aware of any trends that are occurring with blood work too. We tend to listen to our doctors when they say things are normal without ever seeing labs. If we gather our labs, then we can become our own advocates and avoid suffering with conditions for many many years.