Have you ever been asked to recite your medical history and been a little fuzzy on a few of the dates? The longer I live, I feel like the harder it is getting to know exactly when I had specific surgeries. Thankfully I have kids so it has been easier to track based on their birth since two of them coincided with their births. However, I know this is going to get harder the longer I live.
I know when I had to help my parents, knowing the familiar history of their families was important. Thankfully, my cousins could help out when we were faced with Dad’s cancer.
In general, having this done in advance will benefit you. So often these questions are asked of us, and most often, we don’t really know of our extended families history.
As we move into the holidays you can find ways to learn more about your extended family. WebMD offers this family health checklist, but I sure hope you can figure out how to better ask these questions. I’ve always gone in a little soft to ask about their lives and their passions and in that, if there were a health issue, it usually gets mentioned and from there you can go a little deeper.
Just having this written down about yourself will help you and may assist a loved one. Seventy percent of us will need someone to be their health advocate — and I want to make sure my loved ones have what they need to help me. Prepared.