Patient Advocate

Caregiver123

When my husband was diagnosed with Cancer I had issues with all the paperwork involved with being his caregiver. Through trial and error I came up with a system that helped me organize paperwork regarding test results, second opinions, insurance issues, doctor bills, Chemotherapy treatments, etc.

I purchased a binder and then indexes for the binder to label each area I would need to reference. I also purchased a binder business card sleeve for the doctor’s business cards which made it handy to retrieve phone numbers when needed. I took the binder to every doctor visit, Chemo treatment, etc.

I requested copies of all test reports performed on my husband (CT Scans, blood work, MRI’s, etc.,) to put in the binder. When my husband was hospitalized I included that information.

Also included in the binder was a matrix (excel spreadsheet) where I tracked each doctor’s appointment, date of the appointment and a comments section of the doctor’s visit, all tracked in chronological order. Additionally included in the matrix were all tests performed and the date they were done.

When we were seeing another doctor for a second opinion, not all of my husband’s medical information got sent to this doctor. I asked the doctor what he needed, he told me, and I then utilized my binder and gave him the information he needed.

There is so much Cancer in the world today. We are all human beings capable of making mistakes and oversights. I created the binder for my own sanity but most of all to be the best caregiver for my husband.

I would love to develop a binder system for caregivers and am in the process of figuring out how to make it available to caregivers.

Hope this is helpful.