Friday, January 26

Special Jewelry

There is a very special niche out there for the special jewelry to which I refer. I have always been fascinated by it since I got my first ICD (Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator) to accommodate my OTHER pet disease, Long QT Syndrome.

The jewelry of which I speak is none other than medical ID jewelry. I received a brochure from an ID jewelry company about a month after my surgery. I flipped through the catalog and immediately threw it away. NO WAY, I thought. I already had a big scar on my chest and I certainly wasn’t going to add insult to injury.

Fast forward to 2007 and I was on Google today, as I often am, and I ran across a website with these quotes from many a satisfied customer:

"I just received the (Medical ID) bracelet... it is beautiful!"

"I was so excited to finally find a nice website that had beautiful diabetic bracelets"

"This medical id bracelet is just so beautiful and fits great...thank you so much for something "different".

"After 25 years of not wearing any medical id, I finally found something I will wear.”

HUH?????????????

Hmmm…CLEARLY this called for further investigation. I have yet to run across a ‘beautiful’ or ‘different’ medical ID bracelet. One that doesn’t make me feel 60 or one that doesn’t shout, ‘Hey look at me, I have a disease!’ There is just no subtle way to wear jewelry that marks you as a diabetic or a heart patient.

And I have certainly never seen any jewelry that would move me to write a letter of thanks to the company. So, upon further investigation, it was as I thought. Pretty beads, charms and clasps set in sterling silver delicately surrounding A BIG UGLY medical ID tag.

Although it is a valiant effort on the companies part, I just don’t like them. I don’t want to wear them even though I know I should.

BUT, in the spirit of ‘when hell freezes over’, if I did wear one, I have narrowed my picks to the following:

This one would be for the days I was feeling sporty:

And this gorgeous number, inspired by a Tiffany & Co. Design, would be my 'everyday' choice:



So, in the end, I am afraid my opinion of medical ID jewelry has not changed.

Perhaps Jacob the Jeweler will come out with some fabulous diabetic bling, but until then, I will take my chances.

Update: Upon awaking here in Norway, I had an email from Sara of the Nefariouspoo blog and she gave me this link and to a great diabetic bracelet.
http://insearchofbalance.wordpress.com/about/
Now that is one I would wear! It is very pretty in an eclectic kind of way.

5 comments:

Sarah said...

Beth at does awesome ID bracelets, check her out~

In Search Of Balance said...

Hey, thanks :) You can see my bracelets on Magnolia Tags, a small branch of my other business. We make them for cost (and will continue to until we can't afford to), since diabetes sucks enough money out of life as it is....

Alex Smith said...

You may check out some diabetic bracelet or jewelry at www.myidentitydoctor.com

kirstypryer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
kirstypryer said...

Hey there, couldn't agree more about medical IDs being ugly - that's why I started handcrafting and selling my bracelets. It's mainly diabetic related ones I do, but I can also offer bespoke requests, for other illnesses. http://www.diabeticjewellery.co.uk
I'd like to think that my bracelets and other jewellery items are pretty and fashionable - maybe you'd like to take a look?
Thanks - Kirsty :)