Self care... A word that hopefully you will hear a lot about soon but what is and why are we talking about it now?
Self care is not a new thing. Those of us living with any long term condition do not live in the hospital, even if it feels like it sometimes!
We all look after ourselves 24 hours a day with maybe 1/2 dozen medical appointments a year or even a month, the majority of the time is us alone with the day to day management of our illness and its treatments.
Being diagnosed with a long term condition is like being dumped in the middle of the ocean and being told to swim.
How well we cope, adapt, manage all that comes with this diagnosis determines what sort of boat we are in... For some a leaky old canoe, for others the QE2 luxury cruise ship.
I've had all sorts of boats in the last 20 years, in fact some days I go to bed in the cruise ship and wake up in the canoe!
The big issue is powering our boats... Sadly that's not down to us, that's determined by the medical team that surrounds us. A good supportive team or individual can offer us a super powerful engine or an ineffective temperamental one or even one a pair of dodgy paddles! No matter how good at self care you are you will go nowhere without the support and guidance of a medical team. Have you ever tried to power a cruise ship with a pair of dodgy paddles...
It's all about balance, us not overdoing it and making our conditions worse by managing our health all alone and the medics being aware, respectful and supportive of our role in the day to day management of the condition.
Ultimately most of us will never reach the shore, this ocean of long term conditions is our home... This isn't the journey we expected, but with the right boat and enough power in the engine to explore who knows what adventures we might have?!
