Works-For-Me-Wednesday: Emergency Preparations, Part 2

Last week, I shared how I got things together just in case someone who is not me needed to take care of some important things in our lives. You know, like paying the mortgage. Because having a place to live is nice.

This week, I’m showing you the rest of my Emergency Preparations. I’m not quite where I want to be with it all yet, but it’s a good start.

Here’s my Emergency notebook. It stays on my desk in plain view, and it’s easy to show people (and for them to locate) in case it’s needed while we are away. Oh-so-cutting edge, with the clipart and all! The contents of my Emergency notebook are as follows:

1. Emergency Contacts. This includes family members from both mine and Husband’s family, co-workers, and close friends who can be reached in case of an emergency. I have their addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. Some of these people are listed in our wills, living wills, or medical powers of attorney (more on those later), and it’s noted on the list.
2. Doctors & Hospitals. This is the same list of doctors/clinics/hospitals I mentioned last week.
3. Insurance Information. I made copies of our medical, dental, and prescription insurance cards. In case someone has to take C to the hospital/doctor while we’re away, they will have all the information they need at their fingertips.
4. Medical Powers of Attorney. One of the things our Attorney did for us when we wrote our Wills was to include Medical Powers of Attorney for C. It’s not as scary as it sounds. It basically states that in our absence, whoever we’ve named on that document has the right to seek medical treatment, make decisions, and receive all medical information for C. I have a copy of each of them in the Emergency notebook. (We named four different people who keep C frequently. We have a copy here and each of them has their own copy as well.)
5. C’s Medical Info. I have a brief list of C’s medical history, including his birthdate, hospitalization reason & date, laser surgery dates, any allergies, etc. It’s the kind of stuff Moms know off the top of their heads, but nobody else has any idea about.
6. Husband’s Medical Info. This is a brief medical history for Husband, very similar to C’s.
7. My Medical Info. Again, a brief medical history for me.

Each item is in a sheet protector. It not only keeps everything neat, it makes it super easy to switch out documents when I update lists.

And as for updating, I go thru it every few months, write any updates on Post-Its (ya’ll know I love me some Post-Its!), and stick them on the pages that need to be updated, kind of like a tab divider. Then I know what updates need to be made and where. Not that I always make those updates immediately….

So that’s what my Emergency notebook currently contains. It’s by no means complete, and I am thinking of starting a “Where To Find It” list that details where items of importance (like our Wills, birth certificates, legal documents, etc.) are located. But maybe that’s overkill. Ya’ll help me decide that one, will you?

Head on over to We Are THAT Family for more Works-For-Me-Wednesday!