Dealing with critical illness and serious health issues; use internet resources to help the patient and the caregiver

One of the down sides of living longer, is the inevitability of having to deal with a serious health issue or critical illness yourself or in your family. First comes awareness. Then comes an attempt to understand. Then comes the need to manage aspects of the illness.

The medical professionals that become part of your life are, of course critical to the process. Yes, your doctors and nurse practitioners can guide you, but you have a lot to manage yourself.

Managing drugs is a challenge because it can be hard to stay on top of drug interactions, drug alerts and recalls, and drug effectiveness. Then deal with a growing number of drugs that can be prescribed for one patient by multiple doctors. Treatment effectiveness can vary widely from one patient to another with the same diagnosed condition.

Then there is the need to manage insurance claims and payments. You not only have to be aware of your obligations, you should oversee the claims by your health care providers to be sure they don't backup on you.

Fortunately there are a number of Internet web sites designed to help you manage or cope with health issues.

The Internet is a terrific resource for most kinds of data management, and those resources are brought to bear in strong fashion on health care and health management. Some of the resources are general information management tools, and some are web sites dedicated to personal health care management.

Use the Internet to help:

• Research a medical condition or issue to educate yourself, better understand what your health care professionals are telling you, find alternative treatments and prepare yourself to better manage the illness or health issue.
• Drug management is always important, but add in the factor of multiple medications, possibly being prescribed by multiple physicians and then side effects and drug interactions take on a whole new meaning.
• Find support groups that can not only help you cope better with a critical illness, but can add anecdotal experience that can clarify or inform your personal experience with side effects, expectations and alternatives.
• Find a doctor or get advise on dealing more effectively with doctors.
• Manage insurance claims and payments, to be sure you get the most from your coverage. The insurance companies are automated, and so do you need to be automated.

Do you leave the doctor's office and rush to a computer to search the Internet for more info? The Internet is the go-to place for answers, but we quickly learn that you have to sort and filter, and be careful about separating fact from fiction or worse yet the half way in between "data".

Some widely used and trusted health related sites include: Mayo Clinic, WebMD, and the U. S. Food and Drug Administration web sites.

Be careful, and double and triple check everything!

Drugs come with disclaimers. Many of those disclaimers have to do with side effects. The drug companies are protecting themselves. You need to protect yourself.

Every drug, prescription and over the counter, has the potential of side effects. Some of these side effects can be potentially fatal or crippling. Then you start mixing drugs and the possibilities can get scary. It is important to realize that the side effects vary widely from person to person.

Look into joining a site like MediGuard (formerly iGuard) to help manage prescriptions and their effects on you. MediGuard does more than track your prescriptions. It watches for drug interactions, drug recalls, new studies and alerts you if there is a potential issue with your medications. MediGuard is also a community. You get the benefit of sharing drug experiences, so you get more background on real life side effects, success stories, etc.

HealthVault is a free online health records management service. Store your health records in one place. Use that information with online health tools to help you manage health conditions. Create fitness plans. Get prepared for doctor visits, and more.

Some of the features of Microsoft HealthVault:

• Store health records online so they are available to you wherever you go.
• Certain health and fitness devices connect with HealthVault, including blood pressure monitors, peak flow meters, blood glucose meters, pedometers, and scales. Take your readings and send the data to your HealthVault account.
• Interact with selected online health tools.
• Share the information with family and caregivers.

You don't have to deal with a serious illness or medical condition alone. An online support group can augment the friends and family network of caregivers and supporters.

Inspire.com - their mission statement says it well, "We believe no one should have to go it alone, we all need a safe place to talk, and we can help one another." It's free to join the Inspire community which provides:

• A place to connect with other people who share your specific health concerns.
• Find information and advice.
• Information about surveys and clinical trials.
• Get to know and communicate with others with similar concerns.
• A resource for those who are care givers.
• Vent, share, and learn from other members experiences.

If you or a family member are eligible for US Medicare, you can definitely benefit from their online service, called MyMedicare.

This site focuses on your Medicare benefits and help you access and control your personal information, such as:

• View claim status.
• Access the online forms, publications and messages of CMS (the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services).
• Maintain your personal list of health care providers.
  

When viewing your claim information, you have immediate access to:

• Your deductible status.
• Your five most recent claims, or
• Search all of your claims records.