Those of us who are mothers out there loves taking photos of our children, some creative ones make scrapbooks of our children growing up.
There are ones like my parents who have to keep up with some other scrapbook, our children’s medical records. For average parents, immunization records and very few operations are about all they need to keep up.
My parents and I both have very long and complicated records of my medical backgrounds due to my hemangioma and other health complications.
Scrapbooking fun photos of the children is fun but keeping up with the medical records can be depressing and stressful at times. This is probably one of the times that the parents may go through grim thoughts about the children’s future:
How are they going to explain all these on their own?
Do I need to let them know about what they have?
How do I make sure my kids know about their health and keep up with it all?
All kinds of questions on your mind can lead to you to sleepless nights.
My parents hand me down my medical records when I was 18 and move out of their home in Korea. I started my life alone in New Jersey for my colleges. One of the hardest thing is to see a doctor. Paperwork – Medical History part was the worst. It took me longer for me to fill out the form than to actually see the doctors.
I created a binder with my medical records, and files on the computer as well once I became 22years old: From being diagnosed with pituitary tumor and seeing 7 specialists.
One thing I was very grateful to my parents among many thing is that they always kept me updated with my health situations, even when I was very little.
Even though they thought I was too little to understand, even though I didn’t speak English at age 5, they tried to tell me the real name of the conditions, medical terms not the common words or so-called baby words.
Not all of us need to be as blunt as my parents, however, I do believe that it is very important to start updating your children with their special conditions as early as possible. Because it helps children to embrace what they have and teach them how to take care of themselves.
I was thinking about how to make this conversation into little more uplifting experience, instead of earth shattering experience thinking the kids have so much to deal with unlike other kids.
I would love to suggest the idea of scrapbook. I started my medical record collecting and organizing at 22. So, of course, it looks less fun. For those of us young parents with little ones, I find that you have a bit early start, which is a great thing.
Along with your vacation scrapbook, once a month, update another scrapbook for medical information including height and weight – throw in a cute picture of your children, then a little story bubble summarizing major illnesses and operations that happened in the month.
For parents, it would be a fun way to hand down the medical records of the children and also for kids it could turn into a list of accomplishment. HOW???
“Look, these are what you overcome this month! These are what you have move-on from.”
Just like we keep our fun memories, some important medical events that we rather not consider happy but still very important to remember can be remembered in positive ways.
I also think that scrapbooking medical records process can help children to embrace that those part of our lives even if we have to deal with it at times.
I still look back to the photos that my parents took right after my facial surgery, not to compare if I got better but it reminds me that I tried my best, and I got through something.
What do you think about starting a scrapbook of your children’s medical records? Stop by an Arts and Craft store and pick up an extra set of scrapbook~ Start a new activity, perhaps today?
With Love,
Sarah, Simply Just Mine
0 Comments