Dear Wilma,So sorry to hear this. We miss you in California. You were such a good SD advocate yourself, locally. Hope to see you in Arizona sometime.
Your story about this incident in the cardiac unit is scary, and it's a pertinent reminder that we all should be prepared for "whatever." Whoever knows?
Even though our voices might be working OK sometimes, maybe they won't in an emergency which is unrelated to the voice --- such as cardiac --- but we might need our voice to describe whatever else is going on. Especially as we get older. We just never know.
But, beyond that, it's always helpful to have an advocate, such as your daughter-in-law. We should all be so fortunate to have someone like her around, who understands not only the immediate situation but the fact that we may not be able to vocalize to represent ourselves and describe what's happening. She deserves a medal.
All my med records say I'm allergic to penicillin, but every specialist I go to asks me "what are you allergic to?" so I wonder if that fact is retained anywhere. Probably not. I often wonder why I have to repeat it each time. What if there was an emergency and I couldn't explain I'm allergic to penicillin? Similar to what you said.
There have been some cases here in the SF Bay Area lately of people being given wrong meds (for various situations) and my best guess is they probably could talk -- to represent their own situation. But they still got the wrong meds. It's rather creepy.
For those of us with vocal disorders, you are so right that we should keep our Medic Alert bracelets up to date, and it's always good to have an advocate on call if we can find one. Like you, I always have SD literature (tri-folds) available, but what you went through sounds very stressful so we probably need more than brochures and tri-folds in these situations.
Really good suggestions for all of us, Wilma. We all need to be on alert. Hope you're doing OK now. Keep us posted.
Lynne (AD-SD; RLN surgery; Northern California)
L7martinez@aol.com
