Identification/ID Tag?
 

Hey everyone
Sorry for yet another question--they just keep popping into my head.
I'm wondering if any of you have ID tags stating that you have a SCS. Obviously I am months or years away from that point... still in the first stages. I had to get a medical ID bracelet (from Lauren's Hope) after my gastric bypass surgery. I also have on there that I have a ceclor allergy.
I am thinking about getting a new tag if I ever get some money, because I have a sensitivity (not allergy) to latex and would like to put that plus an emergency contact on my bracelet.
I am just wondering if your doctors suggested putting this information on an ID tag. If so, I will wait a little longer to get a new tag in case I end up with an SCS--they are expensive and since I have no income, I don't want to have to keep buying new ones to add more info.
Thanks!
Sarah

Re ID Tag
 

Hi Sarah- and this is Great point to truly make in the sticky thread Rae started up top of the page there! I'll add this to it.

Upon your surgery having occurred, both your SCS manufacturer and your surgeon's office should offer to and issue to you identification cards, much like a plastic credit card. If kept on your person/in your wallet, purse, or other convenient carrying place for your Identification and together with your identification and any insurance card you may have MOST ANY credible care giver/first responder to you in case of your incapacity would search for your identification/insurance/SCS warning card and find them together.

In my case I received multiples of the cards so my wife carries for me as well in case she has to demonstrate to a caregiver that I am SCS equipped.

Now, no one has suggested having an I.D. bracelet or locket made to further I.D. me on this point, but I feel comfortable for the time being with this.

Thanks for the good question!
Mark56 PJ :)

I have both
 

Hi Sarah, I just wanted to let you know that I have the card Mark was talking about (because you have to show it at the airport and whenever there is a metal detector.) But I also have an ID bracelet and I have my neurostimulator put on there along with my aortic aneurysm. I think it is all about your preference though and I know they can be expensive. I did it also because I can keep the bracelet on me in places that I am not using my purse (like when I used to tutor we locked our purses up). Plus if I am in an accident or something they will see my bracelet as well. Hope that helps :hug:Tara

Yeah, that's what I worry about. If I go to the doctor and my mom is with me, I don't always bring my purse. Carrying my huge binder of medical records is more than enough to hold.. and she I am on her insurance so she can present her card. I usually grab my ID, but that is it. I always wear my bracelet though, or I have until recently. Because I have lost 160 lbs, it no longer fits... but I can't afford a new one. That does worry me, because if I do get in an accident and don't have my bracelet on, that would be horrible. :( I sure wish SSI would make a decision already... I wish even more that I could get a job and be 'normal'.

Normal?
 

Hi Sarah- The word Normal truly defies definition that is not offensive to and disrespectful to someone. You are normal. Your body functions differently. I'm not making a big deal, just embracing you.
:hug:z,
Mark56 PJ:)

I don't mean that anyone with medical problems isn't normal.. that's not what I was saying.

I mean normal as in.. you know.. most people who spend 6 years earning a college degree goes out and gets a job to use their degree... not spending 6 hard years in college and thousands of dollars in student loans just to end up bedridden and not being able to every have a job.

Just want to hope for you to feel Normal
 

Hope does spring eternal. Sure, I spent 8 years getting the education which did take our family interesting places while I earned respect and kudos and enough for our family to live well. Then alll of that was taken away. Oh sure, I still had respectability, but providing for our family is still a challenge yet to be fulfilled. We are working on it. Taking a life that you and I talked about at one time for me was fuller and being bedridden myself was not how I had envisioned my life. Even so, that is what I had.

This stim unit is enabling miraculous steps in right direction for us. I so hope the same for you. I know all too well how people treat me as "that one in the wheelchair" or the knowing glances of folks who used to work with me as one of the powerful and now they remain employed and I am.... well, not up to their snuff for the time being. Been there feeling that.

So, as my wife is fond of saying, we are taking our lemons and making lemon pie. May your pie have MUCH meringue when you attain a hoped and prayed for goal of much less pain managed through something akin to what I now know personally within me.

To me, you are as normal as the next person. Challenged yes, and normal. Your mind is incredible. I am glad to have you as my friend.

Blessings on you, you normal person you,:hug:z:grouphug:
Mark56 PJ :)

Hi Sarah

Having had my implant now for 4 weeks, in my pack was a temporary ID card stating that I use an SCS. However, it does say that I will be sent a permanent one in due course. Not too sure how long 'due course' is. But for now I carry the 'temp' one with me in the purse/ carrycase that came with my SCS :)
A bracelet was never mentioned.

Jackie

Thanks everyone for your replies. I just can't decide if it is important in an emergency situation to know about a SCS. I can't fly anyway because of my back... it sounds like that is the only reason for the card. If I am mistaken, please please correct me. Since I don't always have a purse or wallet with me, if it is important in an emergency situation, I want to put it on a bracelet in the future. Like I said, it is a long way off for me... I just got the results from my bone scan today and will get a card in the mail within a week of my next appt with my pain management doctor--the process to get a SCS is just beginning for me.

You are not alone Sarah!
 

Hi Sarah, I just wanted to comment about what you said about being able to be normal. I understand where you are coming from because I am on my 6th year of college myself and I am hoping to graduate in the spring but only with a general studies degree instead of an actual elem ed one. The accident I was in definitely changed my life and I have realized I have to keep making up new definitions of normal for myself. I even ran into an old boss the other day (when I used to work) and she was surprised to see me like this and it made me sad because I really wish I had those days back when that was my normal (going to school, going to work, going out etc) now I can barely get through my classes, I definitely cannot work (which makes me worry if I will ever actually be admitted into the teaching program and become a teacher) and I lost all of my friends and trying to make some new ones which is not easy :winky:. My point is that you are not alone and I understand how you feel and even if you are not the old normal anymore, there might be a better new normal for you down the road! Hope that makes sense! I really hope that they get you some relief soon and if the answer is having the stim then I hope the journey to it goes quickly and smoothly! take care of yourself :hug:'s Tara