Saturday, September 18, 2010

Spoons!!!

How familiar are those of us with a chronic illness with the spoon theory?You start out with,say,5 spoons for the day.You use one spoon to take a shower,a second spoon to blow dry your hair.A third spoon to out on your make-up.....that only leaves you with 2 spoons left for the whole day ,and its 8 am!I try so hard to stretch my spoons out and make them last as long as I can into the day,I try to nap,which helps me save a spoon,and use it later.I try to have at least one spoon left when the kids come home from school because they deserve my time and attention as much as anyone else does.Housework gets spread"lightly" through the week.and these are only the things I can do.I can sit on the floor and fold laundry,I can dust if its nothing high where I need to reach up.I can clean the windows,they  tilt in.Things I cant do:run the vacuum,it will drain me in under a minute,same goes for vacuuming the stairs.I cant dust high locations where I have to reach,or I will get dizzy and heart palpitations.I cant scrub the shower,I get very sick from the heat and steam.I cant drive right now...I would give all my spoons to be able to do this.I miss my independence more than anything else and its tough to always have to rely on others to get you where you want to be.that one is the hardest to swallow.Not being able to hop in the car with the kids to go to Wal Mart or McDonalds.So,for now,I ration my spoons so carefully.We are having a b.b.q. this afternoon,which means to save a spoon to use then,I will need a morning nap to conserve spoon usage.Funny the things we take for granted isn't it?

2 comments:

  1. aww i know. it's so true though! I loved the spoon theory bc she made so much sense of how we have to deal with the simplest of tasks. My sister found it very useful to help understand... mind you she is chronically ill with crohn's so she has a pretty good understanding at least how debilitating simple things can become. I hope you had a good but not overly exhausting BBQ. Best time of year to have them :)

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  2. Love it. I am out of spoons somewhere while combing my hair after a shower.... But if I have any left today, I will send them to you so you can enjoy your BBQ. It is going on 5 and I am just out of the shower........and so it goes.

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