Medical Alert ID

I ordered a medical alert necklace and hated it. I would really rather not wear any medic alert jewelry although I understand that people are going to look first for an id on my body. In the past (over a decade ago!) when I had adrenal insufficiency, I clipped a medical bracelet to my purse strap.

Partly because the inquiries as to what I was wearing it for were incessant--people are so nosy!--and partly because I didn't like the bracelet. Even on my purse the attention seemed constant.

And it's not like explaining an allergy. Say the word allergy and there's instant understanding. Same for diabetes or even a heart condition.

But try explaining the mess that is my adrenal system and you rapidly learn people have no clue what the hell the adrenals do or don't do. It just leads to question after question until I feel like I should prepare a handout or something.

I don't really want to lie to people either, imagine if something were to happen? But then I am not really interested in being 'out' anyway so maybe I should tell everyone I have a peanut allergy.

And watch them freak out when I forget the lie and eat peanut butter in front of them.

Sometimes you can't win for losing. Reminds me of when I was pregnant and my boss lied to everyone saying I couldn't travel overseas due to knee surgery (he was trying to be nice since it was early in my pregnancy). Only he didn't tell me about the lie and I blew his cover when people started asking me about the surgery.

Anyway, I took some pliers and cut the chain to the necklace so I could put the tag on my key chain/wallet. Then I ordered a bracelet, that I still won't be happy with, but it's better than the necklace.

Here's what the wallet looks like. The back clarifies it's secondary adrenal insufficiency and gives my more serious medicine allergies, says I have asthma, and provides the hubby's phone number.


I don't expect these ids to see any use. As I've mentioned before, theoretically I should be at super low risk of a true adrenal crisis. However, even if I don't have a real crisis, my blood pressure is dropping steeply enough to be a big problem, especially if I'm out and about. The last time it happened was truly frightening and would've been an ER visit if I hadn't known what to do.

I feel better just knowing if the worst were to happen, the medical ids would be there.