As I’ve blogged about before, just about everyone in our immediate family has some sort of special condition. How can you keep track of it all?

I’ve been pretty up-front with the fact that I have ADD, and organization is not my strong suit. Therefore, I have to work doubly harder to have a system. Most people who don’t know that I have ADD think I am incredibly organized (ha!), so I guess I’ve developed a system that works well for me.

At the crux of my system is my combination PDA/cell-phone, much touted here on the blogs! It has voice recognition software so I can open programs, dial the phone and perform other tasks with my voice. It has web access, e-mail, and wonderful calendaring and task management programs. I’ve added on applications such as Jott, that transcribes notes (“Jotts”) into e-mail text and SMS text messages that can be sent to self or others, and prompts you to set a reminder for whatever you are “Jotting“. Another gem of a find was my “virtual assistant,” Sandy. Sandy can remind me of things by sending me a daily digest, or text messages. She can remind others of things as well. She can even do recurring events, and you can create “tags” to search/sort by. Though independent of Jott, Sandy can work with Jott.

When I am at the doctor’s office, medical appointment or wherever I need to remember something, I either enter it into my calendaring/task management program immediately or “Jott” myself (with follow-up prompt as discussed above).

With this newest diagnosis throwing even more appointments and things to remember at us, I have found that I need to begin Jotting my husband as well. I had a private Yahoo Group set up just for the family, that spit out reminders, but they just began stacking up. I occasionally sync my phone with his so he sees my calendar, but my virtual assistant, Sandy, can send Jotts and “Sandy created” reminders in iCal formats that can be uploaded to calendars powered by Google Calendars (she can also send them in MS Outlook formats for those calendars).

I have medication times programmed into my calendar so that I get the visual “back up” in case it’s a crazy busy day and could forget. Medication is *always* kept in one spot. We also have a wall mounted board (normally used for keys or coats) that have hooks where we keep blood sugar meters, though my oldest is not as good at keeping it in that spot. Thus, my husband and I both have back-up meters in our vehicles. We also have a note on the front door that says, “Kits!” to help us remember never to walk out without a blood sugar meter (even though the back-ups are in the cars). This is because most meters keep a log of the readings and the doctors upload them at visits, thus, it’s better to have all the readings on one meter, if possible.

My son’s site change supplies for his insulin pump are in a big clear plastic storage bin in the hall closet. He has an insulated travel wallet that holds three days worth of supplies for emergencies.

Our children’s foster mother kept meticulous records in folders that came with them. I keep updated height/weight information written on it, in addition to writing other notes on these folders and keeping anything I receive from their doctors in the flaps of the folders.

All of my children’s pediatricians, specialists, schedulers and the assistants who help these practitioners are all programmed into my phone. Primary numbers, after hours numbers, fax numbers, direct cell phone or office numbers are all entered in, along with address and any other pertinent information. They are programmed in my husbands cell phone as well. My oldest son has his own cell-phone, specifically made for children, and only in case of emergency. This phone has my number, my husband’s number, both grandmas, and a few friends who are emergency contacts/emergency caregivers programmed in, and there is a 911 button on the side.

I tote snacks in my purse in case my oldest becomes low, but I need to create emergency kits for the cars. Several of us wear a medic alert bracelet and I keep the information at the site current at all times.

When I am on a call with one of their practitioners, or in the office, I am often praised for having all of their information at hand (that‘s not a brag - remember, I have ADD and this is an area I struggle with!), so clearly something is working! Even when their doctors change, I keep the old information in case I need records at some point in the future. I also have their birth/first mother’s and birth/first grandmother’s information, as well as their previous foster parent’s and previous social worker’s information in my phone as well, in case I need to supply information I don’t know.

Hopefully, we don’t have many crises, but even for routine things, I feel great peace of mind having so many checks and balances to help me manage all the conditions housed under one roof!

Photo credit: Stock Xchng