Post No. 5 for The Medical Project

Swatibee is back with her final post for The Medical Project! Thanks so much for participating!

It came!!! and the rings are perfect and I love it so so so much. While I was on my trip I stayed at a hotel where the free pen (the ones they leave on the nightstand along with a little pad of paper, please tell me I’m not the only be who takes those) was purple, so of course I took it home in hopes it would fit Violet (that’s her name however unoriginal it may be) when she came. As you can see it does fit her wonderfully.

The great part about already having created all these inserts in another binder is that the move in process was nearly instantaneous. I took out the inserts that came with the binder and then moved my set up directly onto the gold rings and that was almost all I had to do.

I enjoy making things and generally being crafty but I’m trying not to be precious about these inserts because I want the doctors to be able to take them out as needed – even ripping them off the rings if that’s what happens – without my being upset. Also I realize I’ll likely need to replace the inserts themselves as my information changes and I don’t want that updating to be a major project, I want it to be update the file, print, cut, and punch.

I struggle with wanting everything to be perfect and this has been a good opportunity for me to be really focused on functionality over perfectly coloured and coordinated everything (as a side note I’ve been plotting and planning and replanning remaking my tabs in my daily Filofax for nearly a year and still haven’t cut any of the paper yet). All this to say I’m not making my own tabs (currently, I am definitely still wanting to do who knows what will happen but at least I’m not putting off using the binder until everything is perfectly made, that trying not to be precious s already failing in case you didn’t catch that, she’s just so pretty and begs for fancy insides as well). I had originally thought to make the pages larger as I’d said in the last post but once I put the FF sized pages in I saw that the pages are exactly the same size as the gussets pocket inside and so everything lines up quite nicely and I don’t want to change that so no changes in size for me.

I failed in trying not to fancy them up at all however, after a short struggle I gave in and used an embossing punch to put an S onto the corner of each page and the dividers. I’m quite pleased with the result and since its a punch I can do replacement ages quickly and easily and they will match (unlike the heartbreak of running out of the right stickers). It does add a little bulk since the pages aren’t flat at that place but as I have more ring space than I need (unlike in my overstuffed daily FF) that’s not a concern.

In the back popper pocket I also added the tourniquet that I’m not allergic to along with some vet wrap since I’m allergic to nearly any tape, and lastly some Tegaderm (medical grade clear adhesive used to cover IV sites typically) since that’s the only thing I can tolerate even briefly. And that’s all in the pocket with the popper.

As mentioned I’m keeping the back zipper pocket completely empty so that I can use that as a Safe Place for anything I get given at the ER. In the pockets on the other side I have my allergy cards and haven’t decided what if anything else I need there, trying to keep the bits and bobs simple.

Amusingly while writing all these posts I’m inadvertently creating a record for longest period without ER trips, I don’t think it’s all related but I do think (hope) being extra prepared and careful is decreasing the chances that I end up in ER.

So that’s my Filofax project, it is in my bag now and I hope it’ll be ages before I have to use it for the ER but I feel more relaxed knowing it’s there.