Six Life Saving Tips When Preparing to Attend an Event While Living With a Chronic Illness

Six Life Saving Tips When Preparing to Attend an Event While Living With a Chronic Illness

Anyone living with a chronic illness knows that there’s so much to consider when dealing with a night out or any big social event. Sometimes events come along that make us want to do everything in our power to be able to attend; from planning days in advance to lots of prep the day of. There are times that regardless of how I’m feeling I know I need to attend an event; and regardless of how severe my pain or symptoms are, I push through to attend the event. Now I know that certainly isn’t a good idea when dealing with a severe flare but as anyone with a chronic illness knows, sometimes life doesn’t allow us to pace ourselves and overdoing it is our only option. Now, when I know there’s an upcoming social obligation or event I want to attend, I do lots of planning and preparing to do everything within my control to ensure I am as well and low symptom as I can be the day of the event.

There are six main things I focus on leading up to an event to be as healthy and reduced pain as possible to ensure I have the best chance of being at tolerable pain levels and well enough as I can be to attend an event and not just attend it, but feel well enough to be fully present and truly enjoy myself.

1. Lots of rest

For a solid week before an event I try to do as little as possible besides that which is absolutely necessary. I work, I do necessary errands, but other than that, I stay home and rest. Whenever I do too much I trigger a flare. And since I never know how long individual flares will last, I don’t want to risk triggering a flare that wouldn’t break in time for the event I’m planning to attend. So rather than risking a flare that would make enjoying an event much more difficult, I do all I can to mitigate triggering one in the first place. Rest is so incredibly important and yet it’s something we far too often tell ourselves we don’t need. We all need to come to accept that needing rest, and choosing to rest does not make us weak. Rest is essential. Rest allows us to recover. Rest allows us to recharge. Rest is helpful for stabilizing us, and when living with a chronic illness, stabilizing ourselves not only helps to manage our symptoms, it makes our threshold for triggering a flare much higher than when we avoid rest. Needing rest doesn’t make us weak; it’s a form of self care and we all need to be recognizing its importance and taking time to rest.

2. Sleeping as much as I can

Regardless of what someone might tell you, sleep and rest are NOT the same thing. When I was younger, I felt so guilty any time I would oversleep. I somehow felt that sleeping more was a weakness and needing extra sleep, or simply just deciding to sleep in made me a lazy person. None of this thinking is correct. Choosing more sleep and wanting more sleep is not something to feel guilty for; conversely, someone who sleeps less isn’t somehow a better or stronger person than someone who sleeps more. Sleep is essential for our survival. Sleep is when our cells repair themselves and when key biological processes occur that can only occur while we sleep. When living with a chronic illness, you understandably require more sleep than a healthy person. Living with a chronic illness is more taxing on the body than the simple bodily processes undergone in the body of someone without a chronic illness. You’re doing all the normal tasks required for survival that a healthy body undertakes, but at the same time your body is fighting your illness and dealing with all those symptoms and processes; that combination is incredibly taxing on the body and can leave you drained and exhausted. So leading up to an event, I make a conscious effort to sleep as much as I can. I keep a consistent bed time and night time routine to give my body as much good sleep as I can to hopefully give myself the energy and strength to not only make it through the event, but actually allow myself to enjoy it fully. While there is absolutely no reason to feel the need to justify sleep, having an upcoming event on my calendar is a great reason to be consistent with my sleep and do what’s best for my well-being and taking care of my illness.

3. Keeping on top of my meds

I’m ashamed to admit this but staying on top of my meds can be a difficult task. As someone with a chronic illness I have several medications that I need to take throughout the day and a host of supplements that I also take to help my body function as best it can despite my illness. The trouble is that with so many medications to take each day, it can be difficult to remember and keep the schedule needed to take all these medications. So often, medications aren’t recommended to be taken within a few hours of other medications so it’s a whole process to make a schedule of when and how often to take medications to ensure there’s no issues or interactions and so that they can be as effective as they’re intended to be. This goal has been something I’ve worked on being consistent with for a while now because I know that when I am consistent that my medications can work properly and do what they are made to do. Leading up to any event I try and stay as consistent as possible with my medication and supplement schedule to ensure I’m getting as much benefit as possible from my meds. And by staying on top of my meds I can keep my pain and other symptoms as manageable as possible and keep my chances of getting a flare as low as possible.

4. Drinking enough water

Now this task is one I am usually pretty consistent on whether or not I’ve got an event coming up soon. I always pride myself on staying hydrated. I have my water bottle within arms reach at all times (my good ol’ emotional support water bottle) so that at any time I see it and am reminded to drink some water. Staying hydrated is so important for all our bodily functions. It is also especially important when dealing with an illness because we never know what the side effects of our medications can have on us; such as not feeling well enough to eat, so if we can at least get enough water, it’s better than nothing. Staying hydrated is also important because without staying on top of my water intake, I can get that pesky dehydration headache. As someone who deals with migraine, the last thing I want is to get a different headache on top of it, especially one that can be prevented simply by drinking enough water. So as much as I can, I remember to drink my water to avoid any unnecessary rude dehydration headaches.

5. Eat healthy meals

This one has been a particularly challenging goal for me for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately my brain forgets to eat. I’m so good at remembering to have a delicious hot cup of coffee in the morning but I forget to eat something to go with it. Eating anything, let alone a full healthy and balanced meal can be difficult when dealing with an illness. I find myself so often avoiding food because of rude nausea (one of those awful medication side effects I mentioned above) so trying to eat healthy meals consistently has been a struggle for me. Leading up to any event, however, I try as hard as I can to remember to eat consistently, even if it isn’t full balanced meals. Rather than beat myself up for not preparing and eating full balanced meals, I allow myself to simply eat healthy little things to at least ensure I am getting in some nutrients. Little snacks and bits of healthy food are definitely better than nothing and what also matters is not beating myself up for missing meals. Little victories like eating even little amounts of healthy food are better than nothing because it helps build up consistency and from that you can create a routine. Baby steps forward are better than no steps at all.

6. Use my ice hat at the first hint of stronger pain

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my ice hat. It’s the most important thing in my migraine survival kit and I never leave the house without it. I don’t know how it took me so long to get one but my gosh am I glad I did. I cannot recall from whom I first learned about ice hats but I will never be able to thank them enough. I don’t know the specific mechanisms by which ice hats are helpful; but for myself, I know that having my ice hat on can be incredibly helpful for my pain regardless of its level. Any time I have an upcoming event, I stay consistent with wearing my ice hat. Sometimes I can be stubborn and tell myself I can fight through the pain and tough it out without using my ice hat. However, whenever I have an event coming up I wear my ice hat at the first hint of worse pain. If I could, I’d wear my ice hat 24/7; but science hasn’t arrived at a point where my ice hat can remain cold 24/7 so for now I’ll just wear it as often as I can. But in keeping with wearing my ice hat more often than not, the pain doesn’t get out of control. My ice hat isn’t a cure all but when I’m dealing with pain, it’s certainly better than nothing. And when I have an event coming up, in keeping up with wearing my ice hat as often as I can, I don’t let the pain get to a point where I have to play catch up with pain control and reduction, I can simply keep it as stable as possible at the level it’s at, if not even being able to reduce it even a little.

When living with a chronic illness, attending events can be difficult, stressful, and can often feel impossible. Sometimes however, life happens and events come up that we desperately want to attend so we do everything in our power to be able to. For myself, leading up to an event, I try my best to get adequate rest and decent sleep, drinking enough water and eating healthy foods, and keeping on top of my meds and wearing my ice hat as much as possible. What works for everyone is different but over the years I’ve learned what helps me with my illness management. Important events happen in life and we want to be present at them; so doing what you can to best keep your symptoms at bay and reduce your risks of flares as much as possible increases your chances of being able to attend, and enjoy those important events in your life. I hope even one of these tips helps you when you’ve got your next event coming up and that you’re able to attend your event and enjoy yourself.