| Lifestyle Adjustment: Coping With Chronic Illness
The only universally successful treatment is moderation -- a skill which must be practiced and learned.
Stop any activity when you BEGIN to feel fatigued. Do not push!
Focus on right now. Live in the present, not in the past or the future.
Pace yourself. Plan carefully. Make your plans flexible and tentative whenever possible.
Prioritize. Attend to what's important, and let the rest go. Don't "should" on yourself.
Set short-term, realistic goals, incorporating flexibility for fluctuations in health.
Break up all tasks into their smallest components and tackle one small step at a time. Rest between steps. ></SCRIPT>
Consolidate household tasks; use gadgets that make chores easier.
Delegate some of your responsibilities.
If it can wait, let it go.
Find things to enjoy which you are still able to do. Switch from active to passive activities, e.g. home instruction, computers, movies, creative activities such as drawing, painting, and music.
Be aware of your "red alert" signals that signal an impending energy failure/relapse; then STOP and REST.
Beware of overdoing when you start to feel better. Continue to pace yourself carefully -- or you'll pay the consequences.
Treat yourself kindly and gently.
PERSONAL CARE AND HEALTH CARE
Educate yourself about your illness and treatment options.
Get adequate sleep, rest and nutrition. ></SCRIPT>
Learn to read your body, and pay attention to its signals. Recognize that taking good care of yourself is a new and important accomplishment.
Create a pleasant environment with adequate ventilation, favorite colors, music and fragrance (if well tolerated). Surround yourself with things you enjoy.
Keep a calendar of symptoms, medications, and major activities and a journal of your thoughts and feelings. Exercise, if tolerated, should be non-aerobic and time-limited. Start with stretching exercises, walking, or water exercise -- a few minutes at a time. Monitor yourself for relapse over the next 24 to 48 hours.
Seek health care from experienced practitioners who are familiar with your illness and have treated a large number of patients. Develop a productive and cooperative relationship with your health care practitioners.
RELATIONSHIPS
Enlist the support of others, those who share your illness and those who are well.
Ask for what you want or need. Be specific when making requests. ></SCRIPT>
Educate others about your illness.
Respond assertively to insensitive comments from others.
Encourage positive relationships and weed out the negative ones.
Communicate your appreciation to helpful friends and family members.
Seek balance in relationships, especially if you were a "giver" or "caretaker" in your pre-illness state.
Communicate, touch, hug, laugh, love.
COGNITIVE TOOLS
Get organized. Routine reduces confusion. Develop a system and stick with it.
Write everything down. Use sticky notes, a whiteboard, and a daytimer.
Organize your medications in advance, apportioning them in a weekly medication box with divisions for days of the week and times of day. This will help avoid confusion about whether you remembered to take your meds. ></SCRIPT>
Keep a calendar of symptoms, treatments, activities and events, and a general rating for how you feel each day. This can be helpful in determining if specific therapies are helpful and as documentation for disability if necessary.
Keep a pad and pen next to the phone, at bedside, and in various locations around the house.
Keep an insurance log of claims submitted, dates, payments received, and payments you have made.
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