Do you wear a medical id?

#21

Nope. I dislike necklaces and can’t wear a bracelet easily at work. My smartwatch shows my CGM though…
And I have plenty of D tech applied to various bits of my body. That’ll do.

#22

I wouldn’t count on that. In my experience in hospitals, half the medical professionals don’t know what any of that stuff is. And, even if they do recognize something as an insulin pump, half the time they either think it’s a closed-loop system that automatically manages blood sugar, or they think it can just be removed with no consequence.

#23

Believe it or not, a med assistant at one of my doctor’s offices thought my pump was a pager! That was a few days ago! Nobody wears pagers that I’m aware of, in this day and age. If they do, I’m sure not aware of it. Back in the 80’s when I ran a business, we used pagers. Long before cell phones.

#24

Omg. I had a co worker think my bg monitor was a pager. I hope they know better now

#25

I was at an event and a speaker came running up to me, so excited pointing to my arm. I know I get excited (odd how excited you can be when you see someone with a Dex or pump!) and I thought she was wearing one too or knew someone else who did. She started to talk with me about it and it turned out I was wrong, and so was she, she didn’t know it was an insulin pump (OmniPod) she thought I was on Neulasta because her sister was and she had been to the doctor that day with her.

#26

I’m pretty sure doctors still use pagers when they are on-call.

Everyone else…not so much.

#27

I just googled Neulasta. Could this be another way Insulet is making some money? Looks identical to the OmniPod to me.

neulasta.jpg480x640

#28

@Jen Yes, it sure does and it could be, but I don’t know who makes Neulasta. I’ve recently seen their television commercials. It’s amazing how close in appearance they are. There are so many television commercials about all kinds of medications, yet I’ve never seen one for OmniPods (or other insulin pumps for that matter). After that encounter, I’ve wondered how many people think I am using Neulasta.

#29

Looks like it is basically an OmniPod delivering a differnet medication:

Drug delivery revenue grew 19% to $19.2 million thanks to continued growth in sales of Amgen’s Neulasta Onpro kit, which is powered by Insulet’s technology.

#30

Mine is a closed loop… So unless I’m unconscious long term, things will stay nice for at least a while.

#31

It sure does at that! Thanks for the article too :slight_smile: It was an interesting read.

#32

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I don’t wear a medical Id tag, but I do have a tattoo on my wrist that would be checked that says that I’m diabetic. I kept breaking, losing, and forgetting my id tag, so I had the idea for the tattoo instead. I love it!! Anyone else hear have one?

#33

I wear a medical alert watch. It looks like a normal watch with a leather band, but has the medical alert symbol on the face of the watch. I’ve seen people glace at it, but no one has ever asked me anything.

My mom (who was also a diabetic) was adamant that I get one when I was diagnosed; she wore a necklace for years, then switched to a bracelet. I never wore one when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis or Graves disease (go figure). Thought didn’t cross my mind I guess.

#34

I’ve worn a dog tag for years. Never had to use it and I’m skeptical it would help, but I’m used to wearing it now. I also use the ‘emergency info’ on my iPhone,

#35

This is one reason I like MedicAlert. I didn’t wear a bracelet for Graves’ for over a year after I was diagnosed because I didn’t know if I needed to engrave it (I only engrave potentially life-threatening conditions on my bracelet). When I got a new bracelet, I asked the nurse at MedicAlert if it should be engraved, and she said yes. Apparently things like accidents, infections, severe stress, surgery, or other medical emergencies like a heart attack or DKA can trigger a thyroid storm in people with Graves’ disease (at least people who still have their thyroid), which is life-threatening.

#36

Thanks Jen. See…learn something new every day. After my Graves diagnosis, Mom wanted to get me one, that was around the same time she was diagnosed with her diabetes.

I was 13 years old a freshman in high school, so you can image the stress of being diagnosed with a chronic illness…I surely didn’t want to wear anything that advertised I was sick.

Mom was more prepared for her diagnosis–you could say she was waiting for it—the oldest child of diabetics? Yeah, just a matter of time.

#37

When I was diagnosed with diabetes at age 9, my parents got me one of those ugly generic bracelets that had a giant red symbol and just said “diabetic” from the drugstore. I thought it looked ugly and hated it and refused to wear it. It wasn’t until an unrelated ambulance ride when I was eleven that I decided wearing one might be a good idea, and that’s when we got MedicAlert. The paramedics told my mom about it, said it was especially important since I had more going on medically than just diabetes.

I also refused to carry emergency supplies with me in high school. I said I could make it to my locker if I was low. It took collapsing in the middle of the hallway while trying to get to my locker one day and being saved by a friend who recognized what was happening for me to decide that carrying stuff with me would be a good idea.

So that’s why I wear a bracelet now with all my information on it. I’d rather be safe than sorry.

I’ve never really felt that it identified me as having diabetes, because so many people wear these bracelets for so many reasons. For all anyone knows, it could just be a medication allergy. No one needs to know that in my case it’s a whole host of medical issues.

#38

So true Jen. As I got older, and the complications from Graves I began to understand my medical issues.

I think at the time I really didn’t understand what Graves was or the dangers of thyroid problems—especially since my doctors (specialists included) kept saying they hadn’t seen a person so young with it.

I could understand my Mom’s and my grandparents diabetes and even help them with it.

Now I don’t go anywhere without my medical ID watch, and definitely have no problem wearing it–listing diabetes, RA, thyroid, high blood pressure, multiple meds. I don’t list the heart problem (mitral regurgitation) due to thyroid but the meds will let the doctors know.

I’m with you–better safe than sorry.

#39

I have a medic alert tattoo. Bracelets would get caught on things, and the words would wear off. I am looking forward to the day when I go back to my Tat Artist to have the words “I used to have” added to my tat.

Diabetes Tattoos show them off!
#40

I wear one for running races, otherwise haven’t done so since middle school.