Friday, February 5, 2010

IT IS ALL IN THE MANAGEMENT









Finding your zen place is wonderful if you can do it but from a practical viewpoint how do you get through the day?

The fog is what drives me crazy. I've been used to and blessed with a really good memory. I used to quickly peruse through documents and then tell you what was in it and even recite a few lines. Verbatim. Now I look at them like they've been written in foreign languages. Now I have to read them two or three times to get the meaning to sink in.

Keep track of appointments in one place.

One of the greatest things I have is a calendar inside my phone. While I'm at appointments or if I'm making them, the information automatically is input in my phone. If I have to depend on little scraps of paper or appointment cards, I'm screwed. 


The added benefit is I don't get stressed by rushing to appointments that I didn't remember or knowing that I'm forgetting something very important.


Keep a symptom tracker.


I love writing. This blog not only serves as my zen place but my symptom tracker as well. If you keep track of your high's and lows on a daily basis it's easy to take this to your doctor. 


The added benefit is that I don't adopt the deer in the headlight look when the doctor asks how I've been feeling. They can't fix what they don't know and I can't rely on my imperfect memory anymore.




Listen to your body.


One of the hardest things for me to do is to make it "all about me." If it's time to rest the best thing to do is listen to what your body is trying to tell you. Get a massage, take a long bath, relax in bed and watch a movie and don't feel guilty about it.  If you feel good enough to take a walk go do it but don't do too much. The problem is that if you over-exert yourself you'll pay for it later. This starts a never-ending cycle of over-exertion and payback.  If you can't do something that needs to get done, find another way to do it. It will help your coping mechanisms and you feel like you've accomplished something.


The added benefit is that you will relax and let the stress drain out of your body. It helps your mind and it helps relieve your symptoms. 


Day by day.


That's what it is.


Or minute by minute if it gets really bad.





0 comments:

Post a Comment

Please leave a comment!