Personal physical & mental health update
I've been doing a lot in the last couple of weeks to try to address a downturn that started around November last year.
- GP care plan completed for complex medical care needs
- Podiatrist booked
- Referrals to exercise physiologist & diabetes educator obtained, to be booked next
- Dysautonomia specialist consulted
- New 24-hour blood-pressure monitoring test happening next week
- May increase dexamphetamine if blood pressure looks okay
(1/5)
Personal physical & mental health update
- Getting weird lump on my back excised next week (eek minor procedure, it will be okay)
- Psych therapy started again, going well
- Impulsively booked Tokyo trip for May (will probably help mental health but may increase money anxiety oops)
- Investigated vaccination requirements for Tokyo trip (may want Hepatitis A & B vax, need to look up my old records)
- Started bullet journalling (patchy but holding)
- Eating better, could cut sugar more
(2/5)
Personal physical & mental health update
- Applied for JobSeeker benefit & completed interview, have medical exemption meaning I don't actually have to job-seek for 3 months
- (Don't know yet if I'll get benefits, will find out in another week or two)
- Have been pretty damn good about sticking to the work-before-midday rule that I set for myself (agreed with therapist)
- Doing hydrotherapy with Mum on Thursdays
- Planning to add another 1-2 sessions hydrotherapy each week
(3/5)
Personal physical & mental health update
- Walking a lot (catching Pokemon), possibly too much because I'm wearing myself out and my legs sometimes hurt
- Blood tests have all come back excellent, for the first time in years
- Need to find out what to do about taking dexamphetamine to Japan (it's illegal there, I think)
- Got treatment for gungy skin bits
- Still having trouble gauging appropriate activity levels, often wiped out in the afternoons
- Helping Mum set up wicking garden beds
(4/5)
Personal physical & mental health update
- Cooking & eating a lot more fresh veg, including veg from our garden
- Clicky knee is feeling a bit better, have new exercises to try
I know there's more, but it's pretty freaking great to look back at that list and realise how much I've done, am doing and will still do to try to turn things around.
I have a fear that this current level of ability is my new normal. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I'll find a way to work with what I've got.
(5/5)
Personal physical & mental health update
@lookitmychicken congrats on getting so much done!
my experience (w/EDS & CFS/ME) is that lifestyle changes always take wayyyy longer to result in concrete improvements than i expect, esp since the first half of those improvements is always spent recouping the extra energy expenditure from making said improvements. so, it may still come in time, even if you’re not feeling like you’re getting anywhere right now. but even if your worries are right and it doesn’t change much, you’re still building a solid foundation to help maintain your health long term, which is also important 💖
Personal physical & mental health update
@Satsuma
Chronic fatigue is a real thing. We're going through life with heavy weights attached.
It's okay if we can't do the same things that people without chronic fatigue can do. Their bodies work differently.
I'm jealous of those people, measuring myself against their achievements, and feeling inadequate.
But I'm actually fucking amazing, I am doing the best I can at this moment in time. And if there are times I can't do so much, that's okay too.
Personal physical & mental health update
@lookitmychicken yeah measuring yourself against other people is a loosing effort — it makes you feel worse without any real benefit
our lives have value outside of your accomplishments, your ability to meet societies expectations, etc.
Personal physical & mental health update
@lookitmychicken ah yeah i am an unusually unstretchy stretchy bitch hahaha — if i didn’t have two siblings who definitely have it my dr’s and i prob wouldn’t have thought to even consider it as an option! so the idea that at least some people w/broader dysautonomia diagnoses either have “sub-clinical” EDS or some other similar underlying condition feels p plausible
Personal physical & mental health update
@Satsuma
I mostly don't have the stretchy bitch disease (EDS) although our dysautonomia specialist has theorised that EDS & most forms of dysautonomia have a shared underlying contributor: excessive stretchiness of things that shouldn't stretch so much.
It's comforting to remember that it's not a moral failure to have stretchy blood vessels and not enough blood getting to my brain.