An almond. A canoe. The middle of a lake, far from help.
In early 2003, Ardith popped an almond into her mouth while on a canoe trip. She immediately recognized the warning signs.
“As soon as I did, I knew that feeling, tingling lips, itchy roof of my mouth so I spit it out, I rinsed my mouth,” she says.
Ardith took an antihistamine right away and was fine. When she returned home, allergy testing revealed that she was allergic to many kinds of nuts.
By then, Ardith had already understood how important allergy information could be. A retired nurse, she spent 35 years working in the operating room, where one of the first questions asked before surgery was whether a patient had any allergies.
She learned that lesson personally when she had surgery and was given Codeine post-op.
“Turns out I'm allergic to it,” she says.
That experience led Ardith to subscribe to MedicAlert around 1999.
When she was young, her only known allergy was to Guinea pigs. As she got older, her health information became more complex. She developed allergies to several foods and antibiotics, as well as oral allergy syndrome, which means certain raw foods can trigger a reaction while their cooked versions do not.
Today, Ardith’s allergy list is long—and it continues to change.
“I have a long allergy list now,” she says. “I have a MedicAlert bracelet and it's all accessible through the ID profile number and phone number on there. I can update it online whenever there are changes.”
Her MedicAlert ID connects emergency professionals to her Personal Health Record, where her complete health information can be accessed and kept current. It doesn’t all need to be engraved on her bracelet.
That connection brings peace of mind not only to Ardith, but also to her husband.
“My husband's been very supportive through all of this, but he has no medical background,” she says.
Knowing that Ardith’s allergy information is accessible through her MedicAlert ID means her husband does not need to remember every detail himself.
For Ardith, that reassurance matters most in situations where she may not be able to communicate.
“I too feel peace of mind knowing that if I'm in a situation such as a car accident, where I can't talk or am unconscious, medical people will look for information about me such as a MedicAlert bracelet.”
Ardith’s understanding of protection also extends beyond her own allergies. Both of her parents had Alzheimer’s, and her father frequently wandered. Although he wore a blue MedicAlert Alzheimer’s bracelet, Ardith remembers its limitation at the time.
“However; this only works if someone finds you,” she says. “To have a GPS on it would have been amazing.”
Today, Ardith sees GPS-supported services such as NAVIVA as an example of how MedicAlert continues to evolve—building on the trusted health-information connection she has relied on while adding new ways to help protect people whose needs may change.
For more than 25 of MedicAlert’s 65 years, Ardith has trusted one source to keep pace with her changing health information—and to make it accessible when it is needed most.
Are you an individual with a chronic medical condition? Learn more about how MedicAlert can provide peace of mind, protection, and support at medicalert.ca/signup or call 1-800-668-1507 today.
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