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Taking medicine on time can be critical to a Parkinson's disease patient's ability to move, talk, or swallow. But if a sudden trip to the hospital is necessary, it could be hours before staff finds out about the pills the patient should be receiving.
One way to avoid such a crisis is to make an emergency card listing all your parent's drugs and the specific times to take them. Have your parent's Parkinson's disease neurologist sign a note on the card requesting other doctors to help maintain this medication schedule. Your parent can carry the card at all times, and you can also keep a copy handy, just in case.
Download a free PDF copy of an emergency card provided by the American Parkinson Disease Association Information & Referral Center at Stanford University Medical Center. To make the card, follow these instructions:
- Print the document on one side of a sheet of card stock.
- Reinsert the paper to print again on the other side -- but this time reorient the page upside down so that the text on both faces lines up. You'll end up with two copies of the double-sided emergency card.
- Cut apart, trim, and laminate as desired.
It would be nice if one could type the info. on the form. And then print it out. Maybe it's my lack of computer knowledge that prevents that.