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The Helpful Chart My Doctor Recommended I Create
Do you ever discover a useful resource for your health that just makes you want to share it? That’s the way I felt when my doctor recommended I create this chart. This is a helpful way to prepare for a doctor’s visit. It led to a lot of light bulb moments as I considered the future direction of my treatment plan, especially when it comes to medication and supplements.
This chart will help you streamline appointments by having more information at your fingertips, whether you’re meeting with your doctor in person or doing televisits. (I’ve actually found televisits practical because I use up less energy and can pull up documents about my health history on my computer…or ask my mom to run into the next room to check the dosage on my supplements, LOL! What do you guys think of them?)
I feel I’ve hit a dead end with my health and haven’t been seeing improvement (so I’ve been trying to focus on the little things I can do).
That’s why I recently saw my naturopathic oncologist to get a new perspective. I hadn’t seen him in awhile—I had thyroid cancer three years ago and have other chronic health conditions including dysautonomia, fibromyalgia, an autoimmune disease, and asthma.
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Q&A with Olivia Wolfertz: “I would encourage someone going through a chronic illness to see themselves as valuable and brave even despite their limits.”
Olivia Wolfertz runs the blog Unpolished Ponderings, where she shares her love of Jesus and creativity, plus a hopeful outlook on life with chronic illness. I feel so blessed that this Invisible Illness, Visible Worth interview project continues to let me connect with kindred spirits who love stories, creating, and writing!
Olivia created her blogging platform a few years ago as a way to document and cope with her illnesses, including Lyme disease. It’s grown into an outlet where she loves to share what she’s been making lately and what’s encouraging her.
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Ups And Downs: Summer, Chronic Illness, and a New Normal
Hello friends, I’m so excited to be able to join A Chronic Voice’s link up this month. Summer is finally here, but unfortunately, that doesn’t mean a vacation from chronic illness. So I’m going to share what I’ve found helpful and how I’m coping with the new normal.
This link up is a way for chronic illness bloggers to connect by writing posts based on the same prompts. I found it so helpful last month to use the prompts as a jumping off point to not only write a blog post, but also to do some journaling for myself to process everything going on in the world and my own life.
This month, I’m using the prompts to share a little bit about what I’ve been up to lately creatively, what I’ve been struggling with healthwise, and how I’m continuing to adjust to the new normal.
The prompts for this month are Bothering, Demanding, Telecommunicating, Tolerating, and Nourishing.
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Mid-Year Reflections In A Year Of Pandemic: June Linkup
I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I joined A Chronic Voice’s linkup for the first time! I’ve been meaning to join this way for chronic illness bloggers to connect since, but life intervened (aka symptoms have severely limited my writing time). This month, I was thrilled that not only did I have the mental bandwidth to participate, but also that the prompts aligned with several things bouncing around in my head. Chronic illness in a pandemic presents its own unique challenges. (PS here’s my last linkup post.)
I hope you all are doing as well as you can be. Those of you who love the sunshine, I hope that you are also enjoying the warmer days. I love that the weather will be warmer (in upper 60s or 70s) for about three days, and then rainy for two days—this gives me a good dose of vitamin D when I can sit and walk a little outside.
The rain gives me a break from feeling like I *have* to get outside; we call that pressure to soak up as much warmth as we can “sun guilt” in the Pacific Northwest. The cottonwood trees had the air filled with tufts of white that looked like slow-drifting snow up until recently. Everything is blooming early, including my beauty bush, which is covered in bees and hummingbirds. (Ok, I’ve seen THREE hummers at once, so not exactly “covered!”)
In the world beyond my yard, things are moving ahead as Washington counties move into Phase 2 of coming out of quarantine/social distancing. (My county was added to the list June 5.) High risk populations are to “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” through Phase 3. I’ll talk more about this below.
Let’s dive in. The themes for this month are Searching, Hoping, Honoring, Traumatizing, and Responding.
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The Story Behind My New Blog Name: Starlight through the Storm
Ta-da! You may have noticed that my blog has a new logo as well as a new name! I thought I’d share a behind-the-scenes look at the inspiration behind both. I hope this will give you more insight into what you’ll find on my blog, as well as help you know a little more about the person who runs it.
I’ve literally been trying to pick a name before I even started blogging—over two years ago! (Yep, my blog had its anniversary in March and I kinda let it slip by. Oops!) I’m sure glad I didn’t wait until I had the “perfect” name picked before I started my blogging journey. (I think you should dive into blogging even if you don’t feel 100% ready.)
From poems to PR pieces, the titles have always been a challenge for me. So I’ve been brainstorming (for, ahem, years)…how to choose a blog name that sums up living with chronic illness, and not just surviving but thriving? I wanted to choose a name that sounded specific enough but was also broad enough that it would allow me to talk about all the things that bring me joy when my health turns life upside down—such as my faith, my love of words (and books!) and creativity.
Here’s the story behind coming up with a name for this blog, and why it’s special to me.
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How “Choosing” Helps on Bad Days + Free Printables
“Today I choose to”—these are powerful words to reframe thinking. I’ve started reminding myself that “I have a choice” to help me get through bad chronic illness days, and today I’m sharing my tips for “choosing” when we feel stuck. Plus, I’ve created three free printables to help you choose what you want to focus on, whether you feel stuck because of chronic illness, being at home because of social distancing during quarantine, or whatever challenges you might be facing.
I’ve found that I can tolerate most things if I feel like I have a choice. In other words, when I reframe my thinking and choose how to respond, I feel more in control and able to cope with a situation, even if that situation is far from ideal.
What got me thinking about this? Not too long ago I was lying in my recliner, where I spend a lot of my time due to dysautonomia, fibromyalgia, ME/CFS (myalgic encephalitis/chronic fatigue syndrome), and other chronic conditions. And I was frustrated because I did not want to be there, just watching TV. My mind was buzzing with all of the things I wished I could be doing. I didn’t want to rest, I wanted to do things!
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Empty Calendar While Stuck At Home? Record The Good Things!
A lot of us are stuck at home or stuck inside right now, and if you’re like me, facing an empty calendar might make you feel blue. I originally envisioned this post for people who spend most of their time at home due to chronic illness, and I hope this topic will be helpful to even more people while we’re experiencing social distancing and self-quarantine.
While staying at home a lot over the last three years due to my health, I’ve found it helpful to look at my blank calendar as an opportunity—it’s the perfect place to record the good things. After all, we don’t have to be busy to be joyful.
This post will help you brainstorm ways your calendar can help you look forward to the future with a sense of anticipation, and look back on memories with a sense of joy and gratitude.
I know not everyone keeps a physical calendar, but if you keep a calendar on your phone or computer, you can use these tips too. Families can use these tips when using the calendar to keep a schedule and sense of normalcy for kids. You could also use this post as a prompt for bullet journaling if that’s the way you prefer to capture what you’ve been up to lately.
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How To Stay Connected From A Distance
This post is all about finding creative ways to stay connected while we’re apart. I’ve been planning to write this post for awhile, and because of quarantine and social distancing, now seems more perfect than ever.
I’m sure everyone is aware that these are very unusual times everywhere. In case you’re interested in what’s going on in my corner of the world: I’ve been home since March 5 at my doctor’s advice to protect myself from COVID-19. On March 16, Americans were asked to stay home as much as possible to flatten the curve (all schools in Washington were officially closed that day as well), and March 23 the Washington state governor issued a stay-at-home order.
To everyone who is taking this seriously and protecting those of us with weakened immune systems: THANK YOU. We can do this, and I have some tips.
If there is one good thing in the midst of all this, it’s that people are realizing how challenging it can be to stay connected when you can’t leave your home. As I shared in a Facebook post, oddly enough, I’ve been able to be more social recently because people are free to talk to on the phone and join video calls.
Chronic illness is super isolating, and the chronic illness community has a lot of advice for everyone experiencing this challenge. (For more on what this looks like in day to day life for people with chronic illness, I recommend this article from The Mighty.)
This post is for everyone experiencing this temporary change due to quarantine and social distancing, as well as though of us who are chronically ill and have had to adapt long-term.
