Good question!

For me, basically, it's just, what does the EMS need to know first? (I'm on warfarin, and could bleed out in an accident without Vitamin K.) If there's another medication you need to keep symptoms controlled, you could make a strong argument for having a bracelet and listing the medication. Particularly if you have pulmonary or other life-threatening symptoms.

I have a three-layered system: A medic-alert necklace that never comes off (except for chest X-rays) and says, "Look on USB keychain.)

I have a waterproof medic-alert USB chip on my keychain that, on a big surf day, can also be clipped to the necklace. That basically has a condensed version of my entire medical record, plus a list of conditions in life-threatening order in case someone does not have time to wade through the rest of it. (It also has a song I wrote in a folder which says, 'Save my life and you can keep this song!')

Then there are the bracelets-- one for normal daily wear, another waterproof one-- and I try to always be wearing one of them. They basically just list the blood thinners, the waterproof one also says "Check USB". The waterproof one is cut at an intermediate size so it is visible on the outside of a wetsuit. This also serves a secondary purpose-- it is larger and highly visible, so that hopefully other surfers can see it and, hopefully, will avoid aggressively dropping in in front of me, etc.

Great, Cat! There are also bracelets you can get that have phone # to call. You send your info to the company, they man the phone 24-7. If you cannot speak for yourself, the nurse, paramedic, whatever, can call the company, give a code on the bracelet and get what history you gave the company.
Mary Ann

Cat & Mary Ann,
Thanks for the helpful tips. I will work on the medic alert ID, never know when there will be an emergency. Take care!
Speechteacher1