Be an advocate for your health

I have seen first hand how important it is to be your own advocate especially in the area of health care.  If a dear sweet lady at church who is only about 10 years older than me had not pushed and persevered, most likely her cancer would not have been found in time and maybe the treatment she is now receiving would not have been as effective.

To that end, I sat down today to make a spreadsheet to track everything I need to keep up with. 

• Blood sugars, check at least 4 times daily
• Lung function. check several times a week
• Migraines, how often, what triggered them, how I treated them, etc

It's a lot of info to keep up with, BUT in the long run it will help me stay in better control of my health and help my doctors.  I do wish I had thought of this sooner. But better late than never.

I have been tracking things seperately, just not in one big spread sheet.

I've got it all printed out for the year and in a 3-ring binder.  It's bulky, but will also be too big to misplace, I hope.

Of course I keep thinking of other info I could have added to it, but my goodness, it's already 14 pages long and 11 columns wide.  I think I'll just jot in my weekly weight check like I have already been doing.

So, what does this have to do with being your own health advocate?  Well, the way I see it, you can't stand up for yourself if you don't have evidence.  The log will be my evidence.

It will also help to keep me on track and hold me accountable.  Don't you hate that word?