Oct30

Making my own medical file

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Making my own medical file

Because of the crazy amount of medical data I have and have to deal with I decided I needed my own medical files. Not in the least because it seems to impress doctors when you slap your file on their desk and make it clear you know exactly what happened and what medication you take and what side-effects they cause.

To make my medical file, I used Scrivener, MultiMarkdown and eventually LaTeX.

First, I started out with a structure that made sense:

  • Conditions (my various illnesses)
  • Medication
    • current medication
      • prescribed
      • unprescribed
    • historic medication
      • prescribed
      • unprescribed
  • Medical contacts
    • doctors
    • hospitals
    • pharmacy
    • insurance
  • Surgeries
  • Log
  • Diagnostics

Then, for each of the these parts I made a folder in Scrivener and put files in it for each section or subsection. In 'Log' and 'Diagnostics' I put a folder for each year, and a file for each incident.

Using MultiMarkdown I could easily make the tables for my blood-tests in 'Diagnostics', and refer to different sections of the document. I put it all in Scrivener because that way I can keep important files in my Research folder and easily refer to those.

With the new 'Folder Sync' feature in Scrivener 2.0 I can easily sync all the files to a folder and transfer that to my EEE1. I can either bring the EEE along with visits or a printed copy (or both, because with the EEE I can easily add new info to any of the files on the spot -- saves me a lot of writing it down and then typing it in later).

Because MultiMarkdown easily converts to PDF (through LaTeX) I have a fancy printable file with a coversheet, an index, my name and the date printed on each page, and a table of contents. All of this automatically, no fiddling with layout and such required after the initial set-up.

It took me quite some time and energy to make this file, but I feel really good about it. I have a better idea of what we have tried already and when I visited who and when my last blood-tests were (need to get that vit. D checked again).

It also showed me I have roughly one hospital visit every two weeks (average for the last five years). Wow!

  1. In case you wonder, I created an encrypted container with a crazy long password for the medical info so no-one can accidentally see it or access it should I lose my EEE. ↩

Oct6

Having a bloody week

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Having a bloody week
drawnme

I’ve done a drawing over at InkBlobChronicles every day for roughly two weeks now and for almost two weeks before that I did one almost every day. I guess the habit slowly forms. One of the drawings resulted in me changing my twitter icon, because I really like how the drawing on the side turned out (a self-portrait with new hat).


Yesterday Nano hurt herself again during our walk, and she started bleeding from her paw. Today I went into the hospital and had some blood taken. This week has already turned into a bloody week. Wonder what else will happen in the next few days…

Sep19

Daily: 2010.09.18+19

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Daily: 2010.09.18+19
Daily: 2010.09.18+19

I very much enjoy doing these dailies, they keep me drawing. I’ve also managed to set up a system to make scanning a lot easier. My beast (a nickname I gave my laser-printer / scanner combo) can email scans so I have it set up to send the image to my emailprogram, which then extracts the attachment.

This weekend we took it easy. It rained a lot and I felt very tired — these two share a clear link — so I spent a lot of time on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket sipping tea and watching a lot of MacGyver.

Nano didn’t seem to mind.

She did, however, mind the attack of little stickyweed balls. They got between her toes and in her mouth. It took a bit of work getting them all off. We did eventually managed to free ourselves from them and will avoid that area for a while.

You know, just in case they lie there in the bushes. Hiding. Waiting. Planning. Ready to attack…

Sep18

Daily: 2010.09.17

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Daily: 2010.09.17
2010.09

I drew this daily in my pocket moleskine sketchbook and feel a little torn. I like the pre-printed dates in the planner, which works as an extra stimulant to draw every day. On the other hand, my colours bleed / shine through a lot which causes a few annoyances on my side. And on one side I can get over that, like how I get over the pre-printed lines. On the other side, I just like it more when it doesn’t show that much.

The added benefit of using an 80-page pocket sketchbook: it fills up much faster which works as a great motivator too. One of these days I will actually fill up an entire sketchbook ;)

So, for now, I think I’ll switch to the sketchbook. As my friend said, I can always change my mind again.

Sep11

Making little drawings

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Making little drawings
Today, in one drawing

These past few days I’ve made a few autobiographical drawings with myself as a cartoon character. I also did a few of Nano, because she plays a big part in my life. I used to do these drawings / cartoons (I might dig them up and scan, no promises however!) and stopped doing them when I started to do ‘serious’ drawings. I now feel I can do both, so I do :)

Today we visited a few monuments in the city of Alkmaar. We nibbled some cheese and one stand had free poffertjes. Though the official recipe uses buckwheat flour, most poffertjes-makers these days use plain wheat-flour to make them. As did these. I can’t tolerate wheat very well but couldn’t resist nibbling on one little poffertje with lots of butter and powdered sugar. And then I had one more. And another.

The following tummy-ache did not make me happy. But eating poffertjes did. It made my week, aaah!

Sep3

New rucksack

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New rucksack
my new rucksack

I recently purchased a new rucksack.

Yes, another one.

Some people buy shoes, or clothes, or purses, or gadgets, or games. I buy rucksacks.

Because of my RA I can’t carry regular bags easily and shoulder-bags pretty much kill me. No joke, I seriously ended up at the ER once (with Christmas) because I carried one and it gave me horrible tendinitis that left me in so much pain someone had to drive me to the hospital. I easily get tendinitis in shoulders and neck, and a rucksack seems to work best in preventing it.

This one weighs less than a kilogram on its own, has its own rain-cover and it came with a separate pouch you can either hang on that loop on the inside, or attach to the waist-belt.

Bonus-points if you guess who I have hanging on it.

Sep2

Worms (the earth kind)

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Worms (the earth kind)
Worms

Last week my new worm-bin arrived. Even though you can easily make them yourself, I decided to go for a prepared bin because I don’t have that much excess energy.

I set it up according to the instructions and held a few of the worms. They haven’t grown to their full size yet, I think, measuring only 5-8cm roughly (2 to 3 inches). They wriggle a lot and I fed them some cabbage and teabags.

I’ve only had them for a week so I don’t know how it will go. I do like them though, always wanted a worm-bin as a kid. I remember this time my mother and I got up really early to look for them and to dig them up. She let me do crazy things like that ;)

I made a page about the worms with some freehand drawings and the actual bin. The bin drawing ended up a bit wonky due to the tendinitis in my neck and me shifting position. Close enough though.