Energy Economy - Leaving The House While Chronically Ill

Leaving the house while chronically ill.

Energy Economy – Leaving The House

When you are chronically ill, just the act of leaving your house may be difficult.  You may have very limited mobility.  And you may have some emotional effects from being confined to home so much (if you are confined to home) – anxiety or fear about leaving the house and all that entails.  Everything is harder when you are dealing with a chronic illness.  But, here are some simple suggestions to make life a little easier. 

Coping With Chronic Illness - 2 Reasons Why Lying Keeps You Sick

I have discovered that it is possible to be a conscientiously honest person and still tell lies. 

Energy Economy - Wardrobe Considerations For The Chronically Ill Part 2.

My Personal Hat and Glove Collection.

Well, in my last post we discussed 2 ways to conserve energy when it comes to your wardrobe – figuring out what kind of clothes work with your illness, and only having clothes that look presentable and are flattering on your body.  Today we have six more suggestions to help us work smarter and not harder.

3.    Keep a few pairs of gloves.  Wear them when you leave the house if you have weakened immunity.  You can buy pretty, vintage gloves on eBay.  Or look at department stores.   Or wear the five dollar winter gloves from Wal Mart.  Whatever floats your boat.  I have gloves in a variety of weights.  In the summer I wear my lightest, coolest gloves because I get hot, and I get sick when I get hot.

Part 3 - Friendship Is A Basic Human Need (10 Ways To Be A Good Friend When Chronically Ill)

Initiate contact when you can.

It is just as important to be a good friend as it is to have a good friend.  But having a chronic illness can make this difficult for us.
It’s important to be the sort of friend you want to have – loyal, trustworthy, empathetic, supportive. 
 But, we are talking about something more focused and basic today.  We are talking about how to keep up social contacts and friendships while coping with serious illness.
It is easy (at least for me, both an introvert and chronically ill) to isolate myself and make other people do all the work of keeping in contact.  But, to be a good friend I have to do my share.  So this is my plan of action.  It is good at various stages of illness.

Plan to be a good friend while chronically ill:

Energy Economy - Wardrobe Considerations For The Chronically Ill Part 1

The subject of clothing might seem frivolous but spending some time on it can make a difference in your energy expenditure.  It can cut down on pain, discomfort, energy used dressing, energy used fretting about your appearance, sorting time, emotional energy, and the list goes on.

I am a girl who likes working on/ thinking about her wardrobe.  But this has less to do with fashion and style and more to do with dressing practically for your illness.  It can still be fun and you can still be into fashion even with these practical suggestions.

The Issue of Clothes and Chronic Illness

Part 2 - Friendship is a Basic Human Need - (Who Can be a "Friend")

Studies show that social contact is actually a basic human need.  Lack of it can increase rate of mortality.  Enough of it can improve our health.  So, we actually need friends like we need food.  We may need them even more now that it is a little harder for us to make and keep them.

Different kinds of friends:

•    An acquaintance.
•    An ally or comrade.  Someone you are allied with in a struggle or cause.
•    A person you know well and whom you love, and feel loyalty toward.
•    Someone you can talk to freely about anything.  Someone you can call anytime.
•    Someone sticking closer than a brother.

I have friends in most of these categories – from acquaintances I like but see only now and then to those sticking closer than a brother.  Being ill, it can be hard to make friends of any variety.    But sometimes we make it harder than it has to be.  Sometimes we set too many restrictions on who we believe our friends are.  We might overlook what may be under our nose or what we may already have.  Over the past 15 years of being ill I have learned to rethink who can be my friend. 

Energy Economy - Grocery Shopping and Chronic Illness

When dealing with chronic or disabling illness, preparing the food that goes in our mouths is difficult enough.  Even worse is shopping for the food.  These are suggestions that I and others with chronic illnesses have found helpful.  

Park in a disabled parking space.  If you do not have a disability parking tag then see your doctor about getting one.  

Use an electric cart.  Do not feel guilty or embarrassed about this.  The fact is that those carts are made available specifically for people like you – whether you regularly use a wheelchair or not.

Purchase a mechanical "claw" so you don’t have to stand to reach everything.

Part 1 - Friendship Is A Basic Human Need (The Dilemma)

Personally I know what it is like to lose friends because of my illness. 

Chronic illness can lead to social isolation.

I want to be clear, they weren’t bad people.  But they didn’t understand.  And they didn't really care.   We weren’t going the same direction or at the same speed now.   

 And for me, the friendships were frustrating.  I couldn’t keep up, so I wound up making a lot of excuses.  Then I would push too hard to be with them because I was afraid of losing the friendship.  And then I would have a relapse.  I wound up covering over my illness all the time.  And, what I did explain to them they didn’t really believe.  Not really.  They thought I was faking or attention seeking.  Or they thought I was worthless.  

Closeness cannot continue (at least for me) under these circumstances.  

Now here is the dilemma.  Studies show that there is a very strong link between social isolation and mortality.  One researcher says it is as strong as the relationship between smoking and mortality.  On the flip side, they have proven that social contact improves our health.  The bottom line is: We need Friends.

Energy Economy - Food Matters Part 3

Well, you thought I was done, and so did I.  But, it turns out there is more to say on the subject of nourishing ourselves while coping with chronic illness.  Following are a few suggestions from readers. 

Stock up on healthy freezer meals.

• Cook or do most of the prep work at your best time of day.  If your best time is just after waking up, try to put on a crock pot meal, or prep a dish so you can put it in the oven for dinner without having to do anymore work.  If your best time is at night you could get breakfast together and prep a crockpot meal so that you can just turn it on the next day.    Again, here is my pinterest board for inspiration.
• Make more than you normally eat in one setting so you can have two or three meals from it and only cook once.