Scrapping Surgeries and Illnesses

My identical triplet girls have been through many illnesses and surgeries over the years. I have found scrapping those experiences can be helpful but it can also be difficult. As I have photographed and scrapped these times, I have learned some things that I hope may help you in scrapping your difficult times.

Separate Album?

If you are scrapping a long-term illness or many surgeries and illnesses, you will need to decide if you want to make a separate album for your pages or just include the pages in with your family albums. One good thing about a separate album is that you have a medical history right at your fingertips. This can be very helpful not only to you but to future generations. I have found over the years, the surgeries begin to run together, and I forget dates, places, diagnoses, etc. Having these pages to reference is certainly a great help.

Get Permission

There are a few things to remember when photographing a surgery or medical procedure. First, if you will be taking pictures of any procedures, make sure you get permission from the doctor and nurses. Privacy laws and liability issues can be a concern for the medical staff.

Also, your flash may cause a problem so make sure you have permission. I did take pictures of a surgical procedure, and the doctor asked that I tell her when I wanted to take a picture so that she would be ready for the flash.

Keep Some Photos Private

Some pictures you take may be pictures you want to keep but you do not necessarily want to include in your scrapbook. For instance, when one of my daughters had open heart surgery, I took pictures of the incision but I have not scrapped that particular picture. That is something for us to look at but not necessarily put on a scrapbook page.

Other Pictures and Keepsakes

Be sure to photograph the recovery time at home. Keep the admission bracelet, the post-op surgical care instructions, hospital bills, and get well cards. Take pictures of flowers sent to the person. These will be great memories to scrap also. You may also want to keep a notebook to record feelings, comments, or other notes you may need for journaling on your pages.

Journaling

Actually writing the journaling for your page will probably be the hardest part but you may find that it is actually very helpful once you complete the process. Doing this layout about my daughter's tumor was not as hard to do years later because we had a diagnosis, and it was not cancer (something we did not know at the time).

You also may want to hide your journaling. Maybe it is something too hard to share. I made some extra notes on this layout that I put on the back. These were not important for the journaling on the front of the page but they are things we may want to remember years from now.

Journaling Examples

Here are some great examples of journaling from the Scrapjazz gallery:

Jennifer said that "scrapbooking about my mom and her illness has certainly helped my grieving process." See Jennifer's layout, Always My Hero.

Caroline has some wonderful journaling about a personal illness in her layout, A Fragile Heart.

Here is some more journaling about a personal illness but on this layout called Life is Now, the artist, jennileigh, hid the journaling.

Libby has some wonderful journaling about her sudden illness in her layout, A Portrait of Bells Palsy.

Other Inspiration

Be sure to search in the gallery for more layouts on surgeries and illnesses. Some key words to search on are: injury, surgery, illness, sick, cancer, ouch, etc.

Hopefully the process of scrapping these pages will help you in some way. Be sure to share your pages in the gallery because they may just be an inspiration to someone else.