What’s On Your Refrigerator?

The Giving Of Love Is An Education In Itself… Eleanor Roosevelt

I was thinking about that television commercial which constantly asks ‘What’s In Your Wallet’ and how catchy their marketing theme is. I instantly think of Capital One when I hear that phrase…’What’s In Your Wallet’. We keep most of our important identification and credit cards in our wallet; I think carrying important identification and credit cards in a wallet a common trait for everyone.

As we move into the second phase of palliative radiation treatments, and while engaging our new friends with Hospice Of Broward County, it occurred to me that we are going to have a number of ‘new friends’ visiting us in our home. It is going to be important for these new friends to have quick access to our important documents which include TLO’s current meds and medication history, doctor information, health care directives, DNR, Durable Power of Attorney. That is why I put (some of) these important documents on our refrigerator in our File For Life folder for easy access! We even spiced our file up with a little New Orléans!

While I am a big proponent of electronic media and databases, we also have to be mindful that sometimes networks and computers crash. When you need your most important documents at a moments notice, the last thing you need is a failed hard drive or jump drive to add to the stress. In my opinion, there is nothing that replaces the hard copy of your important documents.

The key to having a hard copy of these documents is to know where they are at a moments notice. When you are in the midst of an emergency, the last thing that you want to have to think about is..‘where are those documents! Additionally, you want emergency personnel to have quick access to these documents. In our File For Life, I have a spreadsheet of TLO’s current meds, Doctor’s / Hospice contact information, Diagnosis, DNR and my contact information. I also indicate in our File For Life, where the larger documents are located, I.e. Power of Attorney, Health Care Proxy, Living Will.

So…’What’s On Your Refrigerator?’

You see…We Might Have Cancer, But Cancer Does Not Have Us!