RESOURCES: Being an informed patient – is it a good or bad thing?

Image courtesy of Creative Commons, used with permission from Azeez Akanbi Dende-Raji

When battling a chronic illness, it can feel like you’re fighting everything around you, including your medical practitioners. They say one thing, you think another, and it can be an incredibly frustrating experience.

On the pro side, the more you know about your illness, the more productive your myriad doctor’s appointments should be. Hopefully you have doctors who appreciate that you’ve taken the time to learn about your condition. If they don’t, or act as if their word is law, find another doctors when possible.

On the con side, knowing about your condition inevitably leads to self-diagnosis. It’s almost impossible not to, but try to resist. Go to your doctor, get suggested tests (whether you suggest them or they do), and move forward from there. Be especially wary of the possibility your research will tell you that you suffer from 100 different possible diseases/conditions. We’ve all been there, right? OH NO I HAVE CANCER!!!! WebMD says so! Yeah, don’t give in to the temptation and worry that will follow.

On the pro side, being an informed patient will hopefully make you more open-minded about treatment options. We’ve all seen those commercials for medications, where at the end some person who can speak way too fast mentions a litany of side effects you may get if you take the medication.

“Possible side effects include nausea, dizziness, trouble swallowing, joint pain, locusts falling from the sky, and being eaten by a wooly mammoth.”

Who’d want to take that medication?

But it might be the best thing for you, and it seems the FDA requires these drug companies to divulge all possible side effects. In my opinion – and my opinion only – hearing about the most common side effects is a good thing. But those listed under “Extremely Rare Side Effects” on the information your pharmacy gives you are probably not applicable unless you’re predisposed to having side effects to every medication you take. In that case, please understand all possibilities before starting a medication.

Don’t be afraid to print articles you’ve read to bring with you to appointments, or to challenge your doctor about how they arrived at your diagnosis and why they ruled out other possibilities. Again, if your doctor can’t handle this, get another doctor.

How do you handle your doctor-patient relationships? Tell me in the comments!

RESOURCES: 5 ways to make homemade ice packs

Photo courtesy of The Make Your Own Zone

I’ve got five easy ways that you can make a homemade ice pack and they’re all easy to do with using common household items that can be put in ziploc bags and then popped in the freezer.   If you want  a little extra security against leakage, you can also double bag your ice packs by putting the ziploc bag inside a second ziploc bag, with the zippered side facing down toward the bottom.  And one of the methods is even easier – just use a wet sponge!

1.  Corn Syrup

Corn syrup (here’s a highly recommended brand) makes an excellent gel type of ice pack.  It stays nice and squishy and flexible and doesn’t change texture or color in the freezer.  It also contains nothing harmful if it would accidentally puncture or leak in a lunch, aside from things getting a little sticky.   It can be made using any size ziploc bag.  Simply pour some corn syrup into the bag, seal, and put in the freezer for several hours.  This is my favorite method for making a homemade ice pack and I keep one in the freezer all the time.  It’s especially good for injuries because it stays flexible and can be molded around ankles, knees, wrists or other sore areas.

2.  Dish Soap

Dish soap (I recommend Dawn Blue since it can be used to make lots of other DIY things) makes a simple homemade ice pack and depending on how long you leave it in the freezer, it can be more gel like and flexible or firmer and icier.  I prefer to take it back out of the freezer after just 2 hours because then it will still be flexible and squishy (much like the corn syrup). If you leave the dish soap ice pack in the freezer for longer than a couple hours, it will be much more icy and firm.  So the time frame for this method is more important, depending on what type of ice pack you want. Either way, it’s a simple method that can be made in any size ziploc bag by just pouring in dish soap.  No measuring is needed.  I’ve tried this method with both Dawn dish soap and Ajax dish soap which both worked well, and I would think that other brands of dish soap should work for making an ice pack too.

3.  Rubbing Alcohol

The addition of rubbing alcohol to water will keep it from freezing completely which makes it an easy way to create a homemade ice pack.  To make this method in a quart size ziploc bag, combine 1½ cups of water with a ½ cup of rubbing alcohol.  Seal and put in the freezer for several hours or overnight. I made this version in the smaller snack size ziploc bags and simply cut the recipe in half, combining ¾ cup water with ¼ cup of the rubbing alcohol.

4.  Salt

For a really cheap and easy DIY ice pack, simply add some ordinary table salt to water. Salt is another ingredient that when added to water will keep it from freezing completely. Use a sandwich size or quart size ziploc bag and add 2 tablespoons of salt to 2 cups of water.  Seal and put in the freezer for several hours or overnight.

5.  Sponge

Finally, you can create an ice pack by using a clean sponge, getting it wet with water and putting it in the freezer. This is a good method for an ice pack for lunches as it’s just water with no other possibly harmful substances.  The sponge will be hard and firm with no flexibility when first taken out of the freezer.  As it warms up it becomes moist and soft again, but not drippy.  You can put it in a baggie if you want, but it isn’t absolutely necessary.

If you’re looking for homemade heating pads instead, try this post.

RESOURCES: Things to do when you’re feeling down

There are, of course, a kazillion things listed on this infographic. However, rather than going through all of them, I’m just going to highlight the groupings, since I think it’s easier and less overwhelming to pick the group you want to employ than to try to scan through all the individual ideas. Once you’ve narrowed the choices down to one, you can check out just that area.

Nurture Yourself: Self-nurturance is quite simple. It means seeking out pleasurable activities that are self-satisfying. Yet women in our society, even those battling chronic illness, feel quite guilty when they take time out of their schedule for personal development or satisfying activities. Things you can do to nurture yourself are to take a bath, color, or play with your pet.

Engage Your Brain: Engaged means fully occupied or having your full attention. An engaged reader really focuses on the words and maybe even jots down questions or comments in the pages’ margins. If you’re busy or involved with something, you’re engaged in it. Examples of this in regards to chronic illness include playing games on your phone, doing Sudoku or crosswords, and the like.

Move: Get to know your body well through trying different movement practices and honoring your unique circumstances. Everyone with chronic illness has different needs and energy levels, and you need to listen to your body. Examples of movement include gentle things like walking, tai-chi, and water aerobics.

Be Social: This has to do with being around other people, doing something that you find pleasurable. Unfortunately, for those of us with chronic conditions, social activities can be a huge energy drain, but doing things like meeting a friend for lunch, giving a donation of any kind to charity (doesn’t have to be monetary, charities need tons of different types of help), or inviting friends over for a gab session all apply.

Get Creative: If you do something creative you are basically doing anything original, making something new or imaginative. You can doodle or draw, go see a movie, make a craft, or cook a new recipe. Your options are nearly limitless.

Be Spiritual: Spirituality is different for everyone, but the basic premise is to affect the human spirit or soul as opposed to being consumed by material or physical things. Some examples of this (as you can see, they’re not all religious in nature), include meditation, listening to music, or getting together with others to celebrate your spirituality.

Now that you know some things you can do the next time you find yourself feeling low, keep this list handy. We can all think of these things without the list, but I find that when I don’t feel well it’s hard to divide out individual thoughts at all. My wish with this blog is to give other chronic illness warriors the tools they need to handle their conditions and live the best life they can, and I hope it does that.

Do you have specific things you do to pull yourself out of a funk? Tell me in the comments section!

RESOURCES: Let’s talk about magnesium

Any chronic illness warrior should be making sure they’re getting enough of vital nutrients to not only keep themselves healthy, but also to treat specific parts of their illness. Magnesium is probably one of those vitamins that you don’t think of very often. We hear so much about the B vitamins, vitamin D, etc that magnesium and other minerals get overlooked.

But magnesium is absolutely essential to achieve good health, and especially in those battling a chronic illness, it’s something you need to take seriously. Not only is magnesium a part of three HUNDRED different bodily functions, but it’s also something only 25% of Americans get enough of in our diets.

And magnesium can be leached from your body if you eat a lot of processed foods and sugary drinks. We all struggle with eating properly – I had a margherita pizza for lunch – but don’t make it worse by allowing yourself to give in to those cravings. Reach for a snack packed with magnesium instead. These include nuts (peanuts, almonds, and cashews have the highest amount), plus oatmeal and other foods. See the infographic above for more information about them.

Another way to put more magnesium into your body is magnesium supplements and sprays, drink additives, and epsom salts/detox salts that you add to your bath.