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How to be Prepared for a Medical Emergency During Travel

How to be Prepared for a Medical Emergency During Travel
By Patti Wood

Twenty years ago, I got a kidney stone while traveling. I was very lucky, and I had my insurance information with me, and all was well, but after that experience, I realized the importance of being prepared. I have shared with anyone I know that travels to have their critical information listed under ICE on their phones and on a card in their wallet. This even prepared me years later when my boyfriend (at the time) who was a pilot had a stroke. I had helped him put ICE on his phone, so I knew he had all his doctors’ numbers and medications listed on it. When the EMT’s wouldn’t believe me when I said he was having a stroke and said they thought he was having a medication side effect issue I was able to call the pharmacy to make sure none of his medication was causing his severe headache so he could quickly get the stroke medication that helped save his life! The following is a great reminder of what you need to do right now to prepare for an emergency at any time.
Emergency Contact
Every smartphone has the “in case of emergency” (ICE) contact list. This is a list of contacts you select that can be accessed without unlocking your phone. If you are involved in an accident or taken ill, the ICE contact could provide critical information for paramedics.
Your ICE contact should know:
• Pertinent medical history and allergies.
• How to access a current list of your other medical information such as primary care physician, specialists, and medications.
• How to contact your immediate family and employer.
Choose your emergency contact strategically. It does not have to be a family member, but it should be someone who is aware of health concerns or any on-going medical issues. Here are a few tips for setting up the ICE list in your phone:
• Have more than one ICE contact in case, one is unavailable or one is traveling with you.
• Do not use choose two ICE contacts that could be traveling with you at the same time (i.e.: spouse and child).
• Include every method of communication you have for each ICE contact (cell phone, work phone, home phone, and email).
Medication and Allergies
Many prescription drugs have side effects that could land you in the hospital when mixed with certain foods, supplements, or antibiotics. To avoid making a medical situation worse, it is critical to know the types of medication you are taking. In addition to medication, you need to remember vitamins, nutritional supplements, and herbal products. Lastly, if you have any reactions or allergies to certain medication or something like latex, make a note on your medication list.
If you are traveling, more than likely you will not have the full-size medication bottles with you. Here are three ways to document your medications and allergies:
• Create a gallery in your phone and take a photo of each bottle to show the label including dosage and ingredients (if it has other ingredients).
• Create a contact in your phone called “medications” and list each medication and dosage in the notes section of the contact. Include this contact as an ICE*.
• Hand write a list of your medications with dosage information and place it in your wallet.
It is not necessary to expect your ICE contact to have this information memorized, but it is important that your ICE contact knows exactly where to find it. Make sure you share the location or provide them with a copy.
Insurance
Even with the best intentions, it is not a guarantee you will have your insurance card if you have a medical emergency during travel. Take a photo of your insurance card and make sure at least one of your ICE contacts has a copy of it. Alternatively, you could create a contact in your phone called ICE-Insurance and enter basic information into your phone.
Travel and Meetings Schedule
Your ICE contact needs to be aware of your travel and meeting schedule. This is especially important if you do not have an assistant or you are a solopreneur. Having once carried my phone on a gurney into an emergency room writhing in pain with a kidney stone so I could call my client if I had to have emergency surgery, I would not advise that as your best option!
If you are in the hospital, your client needs to know as soon as possible that you are not coming due to an emergency, and that you will reschedule when you are feeling better. If you are dealing with an emergency, you are not going to be able to make these calls, but someone will need to. Your health is your main priority, but you certainly do not want to have a “no call, no show” with someone who is a potential customer or who may have already paid you to be there.
• Make sure someone has access to, or knows how to gain access to, your calendar.
• Enter specific information on your calendar for appointments including meeting location, contact name, and phone number.
• Enter your travel itinerary onto your calendar including confirmation numbers. Services like TripIt make this easy.
After the important issues are hashed out, make sure your ICE contact or assistant calls your airline and cancels or reschedules your return flight. Do not expect the airline to refund your ticket if you are hospitalized, there are no laws requiring them to do so. If you have priority status, your airline may decide to waive your rebooking fee, but unless you are flying on Southwest you will likely have to pay a rebooking fee.
Start Planning
While we all hope to never actually need to use an emergency medical plan during a business trip, it is a good idea to have all the information in an easy to access location. Here is a simple checklist for you to use to create your emergency medical plan along with a one-page document to print. I followed the checklist and it took 20 minutes of my Sunday afternoon to complete. I will gladly trade 20 minutes of my Sunday afternoon now to prevent wasting precious time during an emergency medical situation trying to locate this important information.
*When using the ICE function on your phone you may be required to use a number for the contact to appear on your lock screen. You do not need an actual phone number; a single number will do.

Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Travel Tips, Tips From Patti Wood to Make Travel Easier, Less Stressful and Safer

I have been traveling as a professional speaker every week for a few decades. What do you do to make travel easier, less stressful and safer???
After years of trying every folding, rolling and tissue pack your cloths tip that didn’t work I pack each item of professional clothing on a hanger and in a separate dry-cleaning plastic bag and fold it into the suitcase. I never have to iron anything in a dry-cleaning bag.
I travel with protein bars, cashews, crackers, and fruit in case of delays in travel.
I carry a spare phone charger in my packed suitcase.
I use a noise-canceling headset to reduce my stress level.
I always have at least one paperback book with me to read. (typically three, because you never know when you will have to sit on the floor of the airport overnight, but I will be fine if I can hug my book nights)
I have multiple spares of everything I need to use my laptop.
I go through my check sheet list of items I need that’s taped on the inside of the suitcase before I zip up the suitcase.
In the car in the driveway, I do what I call the three key check and pull out and touch each item.
1. Do I have my house key?
2. Do I have any medication I might need?
3. Do I have my phone and charger?
When I go to get off a plane, I do my five alive check
1. phone
2. purse
3. noise canceling headset
4. suitcase
5. jacket/coat/sweater
What's on your list?


Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Song in Honor of My Dad - Morning Breaks


Years ago, shortly after my father died, I carried the groceries into the kitchen from the car and as my mother watched me, she broke down and started crying. I asked her what was the matter and she said, "The whole time we were married your dad did that for me" "We shopped on the military base and I never pushed a grocery cart or brought in a bag of groceries." I wrote the original draft of this song over a year ago in honor of my dad. I wasn't satisfied with it and shelved it, but the chorus haunted me, So on Memorial Day, when I was missing my dad, I tweaked it and wrote two new verses to see if it would work on my new album.
Morning Breaks
I take a deep breath in when people ask me how I am.
I nod and smile, say I’m fine, and ain’t the weather grand.
At the Piggly Wiggly I push the cart all by myself,
Can’t reach the can of peaches up on the top shelf.
At the corner store, I get nails to fix the fence.
I shore up what’s falling down, paint on pleasantness.
I sew new curtains for the windows, cut coupons, and make lists.
I dust and sweep and scrub away, a pretend perfectionist.
Chorus
And every day is a waiting game
Brave face for my brave guy
You’re doing your duty I know
But when morning breaks, so do I.
At night, when it gets dark, I turn the porch light on.
I cook dinner, eat just half, then I call your mom.
In bed, a romance novel is the only company I keep.
I can hold it, till I drift off, shut my eyes and sleep
And every day is a waiting game
Brave face for my brave guy
You’re doing your duty I know
But when morning breaks, so do I.
Bridge
I can keep it all together for you, in the perfect picture frame.
Till dawn comes, and you’re not here again
When Morning Breaks I cry, I cry, I cry!
When Morning breaks so do I




Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

11 Creepy Habits Untrustworthy People Have In Common, Signs of Malignant Narcissist


Perhaps because of the popularity of a bizarre movie about Ted Bundy, this article I contributed to a while ago is trending today. It’s the third story down on google. It’s my hope that my work will help people recognize predictors before they have a chance to abuse. It’s important to know that somebody can appear normal. Abusers, malignant narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths survival is based on their ability to hide their true dark selves. You can sit across the table from them for years and not know the terror and damage that they are causing to their victims. Believe the victims.


Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Distraction and Triangulation Toxic Tactics of Malignant Narcissists and How to Deal with Them

Distraction and Triangulation
Toxic Tactics of Malignant Narcissists and How to Deal with Them
By Patti Wood behavioral expert and author of SNAP Making the Most of Your First Impressions Body Language and Charisma.”
Distraction
Malignant Narcissists are master manipulators and seasoned liars. They don’t want you to find out the truth and stay on topic and hold them accountable for their actions so when you do, they will try to distract you from the path that leads to the truth. There are problems in every relationship and even a healthy person can occasionally use toxic tactics, but if breaking promises and boundaries, or doing other things that hurt you are a pattern take note and act. If your partner has a pattern of keeping you from having back and forth honest conversations, then take note and act.
1. Distraction – (Topic Change) - You ask them what they did last night, and they don’t give you an answer to your question but distract with a topic change like a story about how hard their week was.
Repeat and Fact Check - repeat a summary of what they said so they know you heard them and they don’t repeat I again then ask again with an “and” not a but, “That workload sounds hard, I can see where that would have been exhausting and what did you do last night? Or “That pasta sounds delicious and what else did you do last night?” (The and is recommended so you can keep your momentum get to the rest of your message and not have to deal with more excuses or fogging”)
Distraction – (Irrelevant minutia) - They promised to arrive at a certain time, but they are an hour late. They have an extremely long story about the traffic, but this is not the first time they have been late and not the first time they used a distraction. In fact, it seems to have started to be a pattern. This is boundary testing and can signal a long slow road to a lack of respect in the relationship.
State the truth, Show understanding and then State what you want – “It seems that you had a lot of horrible traffic nightmares to deal with to get here.” “I worry when you say you’re going to be here at a certain time, and I believe your word and you don’t show up that something is wrong.”
“Let’s talk about time and arrivals and traffic as this is a pattern that feels unhealthy to me and I don’t want this to keep happening for either of us.”
“I am uncomfortable with you being so late, so often and It feels like I am not important or a priority and I don’t like it.” “It’s happened five times in the last few weeks and I would like this to change.”
Or “You use to be on time, but in the last four weeks you have been at least a half hour late.” “I feel scared and frustrated.” “Let’s talk about how we can deal with this.”
Distraction – (Gifts)
They distract by bringing flowers
“The flowers show me you care about me and you were concerned you had hurt me. Let’s talk about why you are late when you know it’s going to hurt me and what we can do going forward, so we respect each other’s time and word?
Or
“I love the flowers, but they seem like a distraction from a behavior that is hurting me.” When you say what time you are going to be here I want to believe you and know it’s the truth. Knowing you’re a person of integrity and a man of your word creates trust between us. Can we talk about how you have been late and what effect you believe that has on our trust and comfort with each other?
Isolate and Distract with Triangulation
Toxic people often distract you from their bad behavior by focusing your attention on the supposed threat of another person with triangulation. This also works to isolate you from people you may previously have liked and trusted that could give you support and even warn you about the relationship or give you insights into your toxic partner. If you are isolated, you have no way of finding out about your partner and you may stay with a toxic partner because you have lost everyone else.
For example, they will report back falsehoods that other people say about you.
Toxic Gossip - “I couldn’t believe it last night when you went in the lady’s room your friends Pam and Sarah were trashing you and your story about your mom saying you complain all the time.” Know that the gossip they share can be total fiction designed to get you to not trust other people.
Repeat and Check-in, Question to Find the Truth, Make Your Request Dispel the Gossip- So you heard Pam and Sarah say I complain all the time?” “and what did you say to them?”
Or “So you were talking with Sarah and Pam and they said I complained all the time” “So I am going to check in with them about that, as it hurts my feelings that they would do that, and in the future it would make me feel safe and loved if that happened again if you said, “Please don’t say things about my girl behind her back.” Check in with your girlfriend’s face to face and share, “I heard something second hand that you said about me last night, I heard you said… is that true?’ “That hurts, so going forward if you have a problem with me complaining can you tell me to my face?” “Honey you are complaining a lot about your mom.”
Toxic Gossip - “Your friend Diane has been hitting on me all night she wants to go to that show next week while you’re out of town.”
Repeat and Check-in, Question to Find the Truth, Make Your Request Dispel the Gossip “Diane hit on you tonight?” “What did she do and say to hit on you? “(Your partner may stumble and not be able to give you specific nonverbal behaviors and words, in which case you should be skeptical that your girlfriend broke any boundaries.) You should also ask, “And how did you respond?” and wait for an answer. If they stumble and can’t answer you or have an answer that they didn’t do anything to stop it.
If they did or didn’t you may wish to say, “That makes me really uncomfortable, and I would like to talk about how you and I can handle this going forward.” I would like you to show others I am yours and that she broke a boundary of trust by touching your face and leaning in on you with her arm around you and kissing you several times and saying you're hot.” “It may seem flattering, but it has broken the boundary of trust” What would you be comfortable saying and doing to get someone who you feel is hitting on you to stop it? Or “I would like you to put your palm up and say stop I am in love or I am in a loving committed relationship. With a calm deportment it is important that you meet face to face with Diane to check in and see her perspective of what happened. Don’t do this over the phone, you need to see and feel if you can trust your friend going forward and if your partner lied to you about it, you need a girlfriend for support how you will deal with this.
Diane, Kip said you….can you tell me what happened.. Going forward I would like you not to touch my boyfriend’s face and kiss on him or to ask him out with you without me.
Asking a question and getting a silent response or another nonverbal response in a way that makes things seem uncertain. No one likes tension and sometimes we may make do with a silent response to end the tension but manipulative people know this and don't want to be bound by words. You must breathe through the tension and definitive response.
Get Vocal answers to questions.
Note that if it’s recommended that when you ask a question you get a vocal answer. Toxic people may be silent and or giving a slight head nod in response to a question and then come back later and say they never responded, using the “Well I never said it out loud so it doesn’t count” toxic tactic or the “I never said that.” which is manipulative gaslighting technique. You need to get verbal confirmation. You need to make sure you get confirmation of any promises to make changes. And if they make a promise to change it is always worth you repeating back the promise. For example, "So you promise that you will be no more than 20 minutes late for the next three weeks?" "Is that something you feel is reasonable and doable?" and it’s a nice idea to thank your partner for making a commitment to do better in a way that also solidifies the promise. For example, thanking them with the words, “Thank you for making a promise to me."



Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.