I've always had one. Now that I'm older, and I wear a bracelet (I used to wear a necklace, and it was never taken off), I forget to put it on sometimes. But I've just about always had one. I mean, I don't remember a time where I didn't wear one. My mom could probably tell you when I started wearing one, but I know for a fact that I at least had it by 4th grade (in my 4th grade school pic, you can see the medic alert). I probably had it earlier than that, that's just when I know I had it for sure.
As a CFer, with such complicated medical garbage, I think it's a very good idea to wear a medic alert. We have different needs in the event of an accident (possibly closer monitoring of the heart, and the oxygen sat levels, etc). We also tend to know if we have med allergies, or things we don't respond well to. If they try to give you penicillin in case of a possible infection from debris or something, it may not do squat for us because we're so often put on antibiotics, maybe we'd need something stronger, you know? And the medic alert could tell them that. Plus if you're unconscious for more than a day, the hospital would need to know about Pulmozyme, TOBI, or Colistin treatments, so that you could get them, unconscious or not. It's also a very good way to have contact information on you. My mother's name and phone number are in mine so that if something happens, they can get a hold of her. Years from now, when I get married, Mike's name and number will also be put in my medic alert contact information.
Oh and -- if your oxygen sats are lower, and they don't know you have CF, they may start trying to treat you for potential trauma problems that aren't there. Our sat levels are less most of the time, and if they don't know there's a valid reason for that, they may think you've got internal injuries, or something. Sat levels or not, if they don't know you've got CF, they may attempt to treat you for problems they think were caused from the accident. When in reality these problems are just things you live with due to the CF. I don't think that was too clear, but do you get what I'm saying? They may spend important time treating things that can't be fixed when they could be addressing and mending things that *can* be fixed.
