I hate being sick. On my last day in Longview I woke up with a stuffy nose, which leads to a runny nose and a runny trach. Dealing with two runny Orpheus is a difficult thing. When I have a stuffed up nose and a stuffed up trach my breathing is even more challenged. The new noises start popping up out of nowhere. I have the creaky door, a cough that sounds like I have been guzzling acid, and of course my favorite the loud obnoxious ghost screamer.
Saturday I decided to take it easy which means no walking to the TV/rec room to use the Internet. I did that the first night I got back home and I felt like I do when my throat is closing up. I am hoping it isn’t and it is just my stuffed up trach and nose including all that encompasses. What did I do on my day or weekend of rest? I watched season 6 of the Golden Girls and the movie Catch and Release. I wrote, I talked to my sister about our aunt. An update on my aunt she is going in for exploratory surgery on May 30 and I am hoping to be able to see here since she will be at the Good Sam hospital in Portland which happens to be near where my brother lives.
Back to being sick when you have an auto-immune disease and a trach and my question is how do you take care of yourself when this happens?
What I did after I got home on Friday from my amazing trip to Longview. After I cleaned out my trach of the gooey, gunky mess and bid farewell to my two sweet dear friends was turn on my humidifier, and then I loved on my cat Nicholas. Actually I should say I tried to love on him, he was kind of angry because I left him for two days and then I came home with a bunch of new smells that told him I royally cheated on him. I did, I visited Angel Wings Ministries and loved on all the critters. I will be writing up a post about this awesome ministry and how you can help Debra keep it running.
I am going to share how I take care of myself while I am sick:
1) I put on my most comfortable pajama’s which happens to be my pink stripped ones. I love these and you can get them at Woman Within.
2) I get the biggest cup so that I can put ice and fill it up with water. When I am sick I feel so dehydrated and I need that fluid.
3) I find a couple of awesome movies to watch. This time I had disc one of season 6 of the Golden Girl. Dorothy, Blanche, Sophia, and Rose make this woman laugh and even if I don’t feel good, having a good laugh helps me.
4) I write. I journal or I work on my book. I sit on my comfy bed and I start writing.
5) I get all my supplies ready for my trach cleaning to make it go easier and faster. When I don’t feel good I don’t want to be bombarding myself with mundane tasks that take a long time. Cleaning a trach at times can take a long time, so if I mainstream the process I can get back to relaxing. What I do is I get the trach cleaning kit open and I use the plastic containers they come in as my storage with the peroxide, the q-tips, sponges, and all the things needed for cleaning. That way it is out and I don’t have to go scrounging around for them at the time it needs to be cleaned.
6) I turn my cell phone ringer off. When I am sick, that ringing just bothers me more. So I turn it off so I don’t have to deal with it.
7) I take extra naps…
What kinds of things do you do while you are sick to take care of yourself?
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