My Morning Routine With A Chronic Illness

By: Error

Below details a day in the life of a fellow friend with chronic illness. This is just one patient’s day with chronic pain. Now imagine how many people are out there suffering!

Good morning Pipsters, Spoonies, and all others following the Positivity In Pain blog! Today I’m going to be discussing what my morning routine is like on a normal day and on a flare day, just like in one of my other blogs, titled similarly to this one, except for an evening routine.

While moving from a comfortable bed, wrapped up in cozily warm blankets and at some form of sleepy peace, there always comes a time that we have to come out of that cocoon of comfort and face the day, head-on.

One thing that able-bodied people don’t really know, or aren’t able to grasp though, is that mornings are usually when our pain and discomfort are the worst, so it takes us a moment to get moving. It’s always so bad in the morning, because while sleeping we’re usually still and don’t wake up every few hours or so for meds, so we just sleep until the morning. That’s when all the rebound pain hits you like a brick house.

Normal Day Morning Routine

6:00 AM
Wake up, stretch while slowly sitting up in my bed, then go to the bathroom, use the bathroom, and brush my teeth.

6:30 AM
Start my Keurig coffee maker with one of my favorite coffees and switch my Spotify from my sleep playlist to my day list, to help me wake up further.

7:00 AM
Have coffee, and taking my morning meds while catching up on notifications on my phone, checking my student email, and usually completing one of these blogs.

7:30 AM
Have a piece of 7-grain toast with cream cheese, sliced avocado, poached egg, and Everything Bagel seasoning as my breakfast for the morning (and yes, I eat this same thing, every, single, morning)

8:00 AM
Get out of my pajamas and into my more daily clothes and go to unload the clean dishes from the night before into the cabinets and wiping down the counters and such, while also fixing my husband a bowl of cereal to wake him up with once I get back to the bedroom.

9:00 AM
My morning routine is complete, and I wake my husband up with his cereal so he can get up, take my vitals, check to see if my PICC line needs cleaning, and then we talk about plans for the day.

Now that you’ve seen what a “normal” day looks like for me, one with minimal pain or symptoms, here’s a secondary version that is during a flare day. You’ll see major differences.

Flare Day Morning Routine:

6:00 AM
My alarm goes off and I wake my husband up. He asks me what symptoms are giving me issues and arranges my morning meds (maybe plus some according to the severity of symptoms).

6:30 AM
I still get up and go to the bathroom, but instead of walking, my wheelchair gets brought out and I wheel myself there, but starting my Keurig beforehand, so coffee is ready when I come back.

7:00 AM
I have my coffee with my morning meds, getting back into bed with at least one or two heating pads and/or an emesis bag within reach. Still checking notifications and catching up on certain things but usually these days I don’t have the extra spoons for college work, so those emails and discussions get ignored for the time being.

7:30 AM
My husband takes my vitals, the whole nine yards (blood pressure, pulse ox, temperature), and will flush my PICC line with a 10cc of saline flush and a 5cc of a special Heparin saline flush to keep it from clogging. If my vitals aren’t looking too good, he’ll hook me up to a bag of fluids, and if I seem even worse, I’ll call my primary care provider at 9 AM to see if I need to come into their urgent care for evaluation or just go straight to the emergency room.

8:00 AM
Usually on flare days I don’t have breakfast, even with nausea and pain medicine, food and I usually don’t get along on these days, but if I tolerate my coffee okay, I’ll drink a Boost nutritional shake just for the extra nutrients.

9:00 AM
Flare day morning routine is complete and my husband usually at this time will go make his own bowl of cereal and I’ll still be in bed trying to recuperate some form of strength to continue the day, or decide if I need medical attention or not.

Now you can probably see the stark difference between the two. Usually, on normal days, I take 5 pills of different meds in the morning, but on flare days it’s double that. Imagine not knowing how you’re going to wake up the next day, how everything just comes down to chance and if you’ll be feeling good or bad is completely out of your control.

Having that uncertainty is really harsh mentally and physically on Spoonies like us, so if we need a little extra time in the morning, or out of nowhere cancel plans for the day, or make a sudden trip to the emergency room, it’s because of how quickly things can change with most chronic illnesses.

Check on your physically and mentally ill friends as much as you possibly can, because some of us, don’t have support like I do in my husband, some of us need that extra push like: “Hey, did you take your meds this morning?” or “Did you feel like eating this morning?”. We all appreciate these little check-ins because it helps us realize we aren’t going through this alone, and loneliness I think is the worst part of being chronically ill.

Much love to everyone, and I wish you all a prosperous, pain-free, and pleasant day!
-Error

Greetings everyone! My name is Error, and I am a 26-year-old agender person who uses the pronouns they/them. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease at 14 years old and have dealt with chronic pain and chronic illness since then. I am from New Orleans, Louisiana and I enjoy writing all my experiences for those to have guidance and an insight into what one of my days looks like. Read more about Error on “Our Contributors” page!