Pacing & Adapting with Chronic illness

In my other article "What kind of fighter will you be?" I talked about adapting and acceptance, today I will be talking more in depth about adapting and pacing.

Living with chronic pain is highly challenging there are so many things that you have to learn and so many ways that old ways of thinking and doing are shattered and new ones come in place. Pacing and adapting are some of the biggest ones, it sounds like an easy thing to slow down but chronic pain fills you with so much guilt about not being able to do what you need to that we have this overwhelming urge to push ourselves. We are often taught to believe a good, hardworking & successful person will push themselves past their limits to get what they want but with chronic pain pushing past limitations can have a gore-like outcome. Many people who acquire a disability like this are left in the dark about what to expect from life/what’s normal and how to live and move forward with illness because they are often surrounded by healthy people.

Taking it easy is your life now good or bad days. All or nothing, Push it to the limit, and sacrificing your health to get things done is no longer an option. Sometimes we do have to sacrifice our health for important things but please make this a rare occasion if possible, pushing yourself too hard is likely to put you in bed and make you violently ill or need an ER visit. Ask yourself if whatever you’re pushing for is truly worth the outcome.

 Don’t fall into traps where someone who doesn’t know what it’s like is telling you to push,push,push because it’s good for you they often say that because it’s a cliché to simple illnesses and injuries. Make your own judgment you know your body better than they do and YOU are the one who has to deal with the full unforgiving wrath of your actions.  Take your time, listen to your body’s whispers before they become screams and allow something that would’ve taken an hour if you were healthy to take days or weeks, even months. Ask for as much help as you need, there is nothing shameful about needing help and as long as the people around you truly love and support you they would have no problem helping you.

It takes time, but you have to learn how to respect your body’s needs, shifting your way of thinking from seeing what would’ve been a small accomplishment if you were healthy as a big one can help a lot too. It’s not your fault that doing a fraction of a task is difficult, you fought through all that hardship to get something done and that’s big. I say it all the time, nothing with chronic illness is simple therefore no achievement is small.    It’s completely and utterly okay to take lots of breaks and naps, sit on the sidelines of an event/outing and so on. It’s much better to get a little done here and there without exacerbating your condition too much or to be on the sidelines and go home feeling sucky instead of joining in fully and going home feeling like there’s a real chance you might die.  Remember that even being on the sidelines you’re still included and it’s a blessing to be there.

Change things to fit your needs. I don’t know how to express how colossal this is!  I always say this, our bodies don’t function the same way an abled/healthy persons does therefore we have to do things differently in order to get similar or the same results. 

Independence and success have a completely different definition now. Independence and success can mean knowing what you need and being prepared to care for yourself on a bad day so that you aren’t totally helpless. If you find yourself more or less bedridden and unable to make food on your bad days then keep dry foods/add water meals in your night stand and something that produces hot water like a tea/ coffee maker.  If you keep your medication in the bathroom and can’t get to it in your worst moments keep it in your nightstand.   If you can’t bend down get a reacher, if you’re doing an activity that often requires prolonged standing then use a chair, if you have trouble going outside/can’t go outside then hang out with friends/family inside, live with a high sense of innovation!  Even if you have to get something done in the weirdest way go for it!

Something that can help big time with fitting things to your needs is technology, the company IBM has this quote I absolutely love. “For people without disabilities technology makes things easier, for people with disabilities technology makes things possible” & it’s so true, technology is such a huge relief in my life and I am so grateful to have it.

Pacing and adapting are huge factors in moving forward in your life with chronic illness, stay strong you have already made it this far!

-xoxo Rad.