Having a chronic illness is a learning process, there’s a lot of mistakes you make along the way. If you’re like me sometimes you even make the same mistakes over and over again even though you know better.
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Get a little bit of energy and use it all up cleaning the house
It’s so nice when you start to feel good, and even though you know that you’re supposed to pace yourself you just want to get everything done and prove that you’re not useless. There’s no more excuses for living in filth, those baseboards will not defeat you!
2. Start a new vitamin regimen
You’re so excited about the new vitamin regimen you’ve found. It has really good results so you are determined to stick with it, even though you have to take 24 pills a day. Your dedication doesn’t always last as long as you hoped it would. Taking that many pills a day takes a lot of time, and more importantly, money. You are now broke.
3. Decide to spend the night out with your friends.
You’re feeling decent and your friends are going out. Finally a chance to have a good time without your illness in the way. You’re going to stay out all night, ignore your illness, and fake it till you make it. Chronic illness won’t destroy your fun this time!
4. Begin a heavy meditation schedule in order to combat your pain
You find research that says that meditation can help people with chronic pain. Your doctor is harassing you to get off your medication, so you decide you’re going to turn to meditation as a new cure! Who need pain medication anyway? Only drug addicts, and that’s not you, so you have to prove it to the world.
5. Begin a concentrated exercise regimen designed to heal your body from the bad juju that’s taken over.
All the studies (plus your doctor) insist that exercise is good for you. So you’re going to stop listening to your body and start listening to everyone else. The signals your body is sending you are all confused anyway. All these so called experts surely know your body much better than you do.
6. Find a new doctor and get your hopes up that they’ll be helpful and not judgmental
Your last doctor has given up on you and is no longer helpful. You spend hours researching and you think you might have found a doctor who will be willing to listen. You try not to get your hopes up, but you can’t help it because it would be amazing if you could just get a little better. There has to be a Dr. House somewhere besides television.
7. Start a new diet that will surely cure your illness
You know someone who cured themselves of their disease by subsisting on kale and water imported from Siberia. You dedicate yourself to this diet for several weeks before you realize you’re are starving and all you can think about is a cheeseburger. Pretty soon the cheeseburger is appearing in your dreams and taunting you, but you won’t give in to the evil cheeseburger.
Obviously my intention in this post is to provoke humor, but I really do keep making mistakes over and over again, While some of these things have their uses, exercise for example, there’s so much pressure from healthy people to perform to their expectations. When you have a chronic illness you have to learn what’s right for you and your body.
What mistakes have you made over and over again?
These are so good! Number 6 absolutely, it’s so hard sometimes when you get someone that seems half-way decent and you can’t help but get your hopes up. It’s funny you mention the vitamin regimen – I went through my ‘magic box’ (big box full of meds & supplements) last night and starting re-organising supplements because there are so many I’ve started then gave up on. Ooops! So many in a day just aren’t always feasible. Now number 5, that’s one I’ve not tried. If I didn’t have ME/CFS maybe I’d be interested because I like the idea of getting rid of the bad juju. Maybe I could take bathe in lavender and shove some kale up my nose instead ? Another great, relatable post lovely.xx
Definitely the kale up your nose!
I am really guilty of using up my energy in cleaning up. I end up dividing my productive time quite unwisely when I do that and cause additional fatigue. I have to get more conscious about these everyday decisions which seem so basic and are over-looked. Great post and really relevant reminders to all of us. 🙂
I’m terrible of being conscious of my every day decisions, you’d think I’d have it figured out by now!
Yep, been there done all of that. After so many years I am just beginning to listen to my own body, disregard the naysayers, eat whatever I can manage, and believe me it will not be Kale. New diets mean more work mostly cutting up tons of vegetables. Tried all the supplements and vitamins, now just stick to daily medications because it’s hard enough just to remember those. Do not clean anymore, my Rumba and electronic wet mop take care of my floors. Dusting is an art, down to my arm sleeve when things look dusty. If I spend the night with a friend, it’s a sleepover beside me, pizza and a movie. “Girls do these things”! Exercise, yeah right. That was first to go, don’t believe the people who think your life would be better if you just got up and “walked a little”.
Always love your posts, they are spot on.
For the newbie ME/CFS community. Take our words to heart. It may make life just a bit easier. The toughest part is accepting that you can no longer do the things you used to do. Pace yourself in ALL things.
I know exactly what you mean about new diets and all the vegetable cutting. I cook a decent amount, but I just do not have the energy for cutting up endless supplies of vegetables!
Hmm…been there, have the t shirt! Number 1 is the worst for me. I get that day of feeling a bit better and overdo it then suffer for it afterwards. I should no better, but some lessons are hard to learn!