Nausea Dos and Don'ts

Lately I’ve had really bad nausea from my arthritis medications. I found I go a bit crazy when I feel sick all the time and especially when my blood sugar gets out of whack. Today I’m not feeling so bad so I thought I’d write myself a list of reminders for what to do if the nausea comes back. Hopefully this will keep me slightly saner.

Dos

Do try to eat even if you feel sick. You’ll feel worse if your blood sugar gets low. Eat small meals and choose healthy foods. Avoid greasy or milky foods, or anything that makes you feel particularly sick.

Do ask for help if you need it. If you don’t tell your medical team you’re not feeling well they can’t do anything about it.

Do let the important people in your life know you’re not feeling well. Often you’ll want to prove you’re fine and don’t want to feel like you’re being a burden or like you’re dumping on people but on the most part they’ll want to support you. You need that support and if you need help, or can’t meet work or social commitments – they aren’t mind readers. They need to know what’s going on to be able do anything about it.

Do get plenty of sleep. Nausea is amazingly exhausting. Give yourself a break!

Don’ts

Don’t try to work out whether you feel nauseous or nauseated. This is not a time for grammar and the more you think about feeling sick, the more you will feel sick.

Don’t start thinking about the weight you might loose while sick. Yes, you are eating less; yes, you might loose weight but that’s not what you should be focusing on. This is not a clever or healthy way to drop kilos. It’s a slippery slope and what you should be focusing on is trying to feel and be healthy.

Don’t over-exercise. It’s important to keep your joints moving but you’re likely to be too tired and too low on calories to do any more than that.

Don’t take on too much and if you can’t get much done on current projects don’t be too hard on yourself. Try to keep doing the things you love but keep in mind your stamina will be low. If you can only manage a shorter period of time, that’s OK. If you can’t do anything at all, just remember this won’t last forever. You can come back to things later.

There are probably other things that should go on here but I think this will do for a start. As I’m reading over this I think maybe these are dos and don’ts I should adopt for life, not just for times when I’m nauseous. Or maybe they should be a list of Autoimmune Dos and Don’ts. Either way, I’ll try to keep them in mind next time I’m sick.

Little Miss Autoimmune

Non-disabled parkers

OK, so you might be looking at the picture and thinking I’m about to berate anyone who parks in disabled parks with out a permit. I’m not, I promise, but I am going to tell you about how it affects me when people park in designated parks when they don’t need to.

Before I had arthritis, if we (my family and I) couldn’t get a park close to where ever we were going we could just park a few streets away or in a nearby parking building and walk the rest of the way. Now, if I can’t get a park close enough I simply can’t go.

When I was younger, and by younger I really mean pre-diagnosis days, if we went to the library and couldn’t get a park in the parking building underneath we would park somewhere in town and walk the rest of the way. The other day we went to the library and couldn’t get a park underneath, so we had to go home. It’s as simple as that.

Having said that, sometimes it’s not an option for me to just go home. When we went to the supermarket the other day all the disabled parks were full. Some with people who had permits and some with people who did not. We really needed groceries so we parked on the other side of the car park. It was a particularly bad day for me, so by the time I got to the supermarket doors I was so tired and in so much pain I had to sit down for a good fifteen minutes before I could even start my shopping. When I finally got into the supermarket I nearly passed out in the middle of an aisle. I couldn’t concentrate on what I was doing and by the time I got home felt too sick to do anything else that day.

This may not sound that bad to you. So I can’t go to the library, or find doing my shopping exhausting. It may not seem like a big deal but things aren’t that easy when you’re in pain, or in a wheelchair, or on crutches, or simply can’t walk that far. Please don’t make it any harder. Even if you’re only parking for five minutes, that could be the five minutes where someone who needs that park arrives, drives around, gives up and goes home.

I don’t want to be preaching to the converted so if you don’t park in disabled parks when you don’t need to: good for you! I hope you enjoyed reading this anyway.

Little Miss Autoimmune