A Tale of Two Days

I had a typical chronic illness experience this week. I’m writing this article particularly for family, friends and colleagues of patients, to increase understanding in the community.

Edited to add: After publishing this I decided to add a personal thought. Other chronic illness patients may or may not agree with me, so check first! We are not looking for sympathy. We definitely aren’t looking to be told to try extra Vitamin C, D or K. We don’t want, “But have you tried….” because trust me when I say this, most of us have agreed our treatment plans WITH OUR MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS.

So what do we want? Just acceptance! Accept what we say at face value, don’t doubt us. We aren’t making it up. It is what it is and many of us are very used to it and just get on with life as best we can. We don’t want a fuss. I’m not saying we don’t welcome kind thoughts or offers of assistance. Yes, you can certainly make me a nice cup of coffee or tea, that would be lovely, thank you. But the most important support you can offer is acceptance and understanding without doubting what we say and without making a fuss as if you expect us to keel over in the next hour. This may not be your normal, but it is our normal.

We hear and talk a lot about chronic pain in relation to chronic illness, but as we know from my last article, I’m pretty much pain free on my new medication. That is very pleasing. Pain is not the only debilitating issue we face.

Wednesday night I did not sleep at all well. I had an intense two hour meeting and worked an extra hour on Wednesday – did that contribute to the bad sleep? No idea. Woke up Thursday morning feeling shit. There is no other word for it. While I do try to stay polite in my articles, the lovely medical word I like, malaise, didn’t quite cover it. Unwell didn’t cover it. Clinically, my experience would likely have been classified as malaise, but that is such a nice sounding word it didn’t cover how I would have described the feeling. I want to stress, no pain. Pain is NOT our only problem.

I doubted I could actually work, but we had a 9:30 meeting scheduled so I dressed, braved the world. When I say I braved the world, let’s not get too ambitious here! I work from home, so braving the world entailed throwing my hair in a bun, putting on some clothes and some lipstick and sitting in front of my laptop camera for a Teams meeting! I did warn my colleagues I felt crap and doubted I’d make it through the day but would work as long as I could. Stomach pains then arrived, along with a couple of trips to the bathroom – I think you get the picture.

However, by 1 pm I felt relatively normal and completed my work day (quite productively, as it turned out) although I was a little hyper, which made no sense either. Logged off at 4 pm, sat down in an armchair and a wave of nausea engulfed me. My stomach felt funny, just funny. I was a little dizzy. The unwellness was back with a vengeance. I had a 5 pm appointment with a girlfriend for iced coffee and cake. There was no way I was going to be able to drive or have cake. I cancelled. Dug deep in my medication supply and swallowed anti-nausea medication and took a Somac (Pantoprazole). By 6:30 pm I felt marginally better. Went to bed reasonably early (for me, that is).

Slept like a log! Best night of sleep for the last two years, I think. Woke up Friday morning all cylinders firing! Went for a 1 kilometre walk before work. Worked my usual hours without issue. Waited for the temperature to drop (the weather temperature, not mine, mine was fine) in the evening and walked another 1.3 kilometres at just after 7 pm, before the rain arrived.

This morning (Saturday) I am giving my body it’s usual Saturday morning recovery-from-the-work-week time and I will head to the gym this afternoon for a weight training session.

So what on earth happened Thursday? I have NO idea. I hadn’t eaten anything different, I hadn’t been out partying, I hadn’t overly exerted myself physically on the Wednesday. I suspect the bad sleep wasn’t the cause, but a symptom – of course I can’t prove that.

These episodes, while not painful, are very restrictive and affect quality of life. I’ve been trying to think of a way to describe the situation that healthy people may relate to. You see, most people have experienced an episode of pain in their life: a toothache, a twisted ankle, recovered from surgery, headaches, a broken bone, a sports injury, something. Although healthy people might struggle to really understand chronic pain, most do understand pain itself at some level and know it exists in different degrees of severity. Most people who have not experienced malaise have no similar experience to inform their understanding of what the patient is going through. We look fine, no bandages, stitches, crutches – so what’s wrong with us?

The closest I can come up with is imagine you have a case of influenza but without the temperature, runny nose and headache. You just feel shit. Throw in a bit of lightheadedness and nausea (but no throwing up) for good measure. Don’t confused malaise with fatigue or lethargy, although they can sometimes arrive hand-in-hand.

Healthy people (e.g. family, friends, colleagues) can find this difficult to comprehend. It arrives out of nowhere, lasts an indeterminate time, may fluctuate and is extremely annoying and quite debilitating. I don’t like cancelling coffee dates with friends. The patient literally may not be able to do anything. I couldn’t on Thursday afternoon/evening, I just sat until I went to bed. Feeling extremely annoyed, but there was little I could do about the situation. It may not happen again for six months. It might happen again tomorrow. We never know.

If someone you know has these episodes, be gentle and supportive, even if you don’t understand. Trust me, we don’t like it either.

Robyn DunphyLeave a comment

So, About the Safety Nets Thresholds

Introduction

Some years ago in Australia it was possible to claim a certain amount of out-of-pocket medical expenses on one’s tax return at the end of the year.

A few years ago, this changed. It was replaced with a system of higher rebates once a certain level of out-of-pocket expenses had been reached for the calendar year. This is beneficial, as the patients don’t have to wait for that money to be received once a year at tax time.

I have discerned some confusion about how this all works, so this article is an attempt to put “how it all works” in simple terms.

The one aspect I think is MOST important is registering as a family or couple, especially if you have a person in your family with a chronic or underlying condition. Watch out for that heading below!

Please note if you are reading this article after 2022, you may need to locate current links. The links given herein are current as at the time of writing, for 2022.

PBS and Medicare Thresholds

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) are managed differently and have different safety nets thresholds. It is important that both are understood.

Medicare is managed centrally and the details and your current status is easily accessed in your Medicare app if you have it installed on your phone or via MyGov/Medicare.

Pharmaceutical thresholds are tracked by your pharmacist, so if you get prescriptions from different pharmacies on a regular basis, you could be missing out.

Medicare Safety Nets Thresholds

The Medicare Safety Net Thresholds are set every year for the calendar year. Once you reach the threshold applicable to you, you get a higher rebate. What can this mean in dollars? Please note the below example is across two different years, so the rebates shown may have moved slightly. Also, different item numbers may attract the same consultation fee but have different rebates based on the item number. For example, a psychology consultation fee may also be charged at $210, but as it is a different item number than a GP consultation, the rebate will be different.

Given the above caveat, the below is sufficient for illustration purposes and the examples are actual transactions of mine.

StatusConsultation FeeRebateOut-of-pocket
Before I reach my threshold (from start 2022)210.0075.75134.25
After I reach my threshold (from end 2021)210.00183.0526.95

As you can see, after I reach my threshold, my out-of-pocket is reduced by $107.30 (for this consultation fee for this MBS item number).

https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/what-are-medicare-safety-nets-thresholds?context=22001

Note all of these refer to “out of hospital” services. If you receive a service in a private hospital as an inpatient, the out-of-pocket costs will not count towards reaching your threshold (although the graphic above doesn’t state that), nor will you receive the higher rebate for any services you receive as an inpatient. I know this from personal experience!

Remember imaging and pathology fall under this scope.

Verified & Unverified Costs

In most cases these days, you pay for a consultation at the time of the consultation and the practitioner’s staff submit your Medicare claim for you. In that case the cost is a verified cost. However, if this does not happen, be aware there will be extra steps.

Verified costs are when you pay your doctor’s fee before you make a claim from us. When this happens, your gap amount and out of pocket costs count towards your thresholds. 

Unverified costs are when you don’t pay your doctor’s fee before you claim from us. When this happens, your gap amount and out of pocket costs don’t count towards your thresholds.

https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/verified-and-unverified-costs?context=22001

Once you pay the doctor the balance and provide that receipt to Medicare, then the gap payment will be considered verified. Make sure you do that!

Registering as a Family or Couple

Why is this important? Let’s assume you are an Aged Pension couple. If you are not registered as a couple, you each, individually, have to reach that magic $717.90 out-of-pocket expenditure to receive the maximum increased rebates. That is, together you need to reach a total of $1,435.80 before you both get increased rebates. One of you may receive increased rebates before the other, if one of you has higher medical costs.

If you are registered as a couple, then you both contribute to a single threshold: $717.90.

Being on the same Medicare card does NOT mean you are registered as a couple or a family. I suspect this is a result of the transition from the old tax deduction method to the thresholds. You need to actually register.

If you’re part of a family or couple, you can register as a family to combine your costs. This means you’re more likely to reach the thresholds sooner. Even if all family members are on the same Medicare card, you’ll still need to register.

https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/how-to-register-for-medicare-safety-nets?context=22001

You can see if you are, perhaps, a family of five, especially if a family member has high medical costs, registering as a family for the Safety Net is a very sensible move. There is a BIG difference between reaching $2,249.80 per year for each of you, or for all of you combined.

Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Safety Net

Please note that the PBS Safety Net is a little more complex than the MBS. The thresholds for 2022 are $1,542.10 for General patients and $326.40 for Concessional patients. Note that if you have private scripts, these do not count towards the threshold. Private scripts are those where the patient doesn’t qualify for the Government Subsidy, but is still able to be prescribed the medication – this could, for example, be for “off-label” use. That link also has good “The Real Cost of Medicines” examples illustrating how it works.

The scheme requires pharmacists, on request by patients, to record the supply of PBS and RPBS items on prescription record forms. When a patient reaches the Safety Net threshold within a calendar year, they qualify to receive PBS or RPBS items at a cheaper price or free of charge for the rest of that year. Any applicable special patient contributions, brand premiums or therapeutic group premiums must still be met by the patient.

The Safety Net threshold is reached by accumulating eligible patient contributions for PBS prescriptions supplied through community pharmacies and private hospitals and for out-patient medication supplied by public hospitals.

Pharmaceutical benefits (including authority items) can only be counted towards the Safety Net threshold when prescribed and supplied according to PBS conditions. A medicine supplied by a pharmacist not approved to supply pharmaceutical benefits cannot count towards the Safety Net.

https://www.pbs.gov.au/info/healthpro/explanatory-notes/section1/Section_1_5_Explanatory_Notes

I strongly recommend if you or a family member has high medication costs, you ensure you are availing yourself of the benefits.

Summary

The confusion I have noticed among members of the general public is I suspect partly due to the transition from the tax deduction days. I don’t remember how well the “new system” was publicised at the time.

I recommend couples and families ensure they are registered because if someone suddenly does become unwell, the last thing anyone thinks of AT THAT TIME is registering with Medicare. With the risk of Long Covid currently, best to be prepared.

If you do have high pharmaceutical costs, please check with a pharmacist. I never hit the PBS Safety Net so I do not know nearly as much about how it works.

Robyn Dunphy4 Comments

I’m Not Lazy

Neither are YOU lazy. The title above is stolen, with permission, from a social media contact’s tweet.

We’re not lazy, nor are we responsible for other people’s expectations of what THEY think we should or shouldn’t be able to do. Sidenote: often those expectations are based on our appearance. Refer to You Look So Healthy! for more on that.

There are four other articles you may like to browse as background material to this article:

One of the challenges we face is helping people understand the whole energy availability thing many of us struggle with. In the conversation related to the above tweet, J told me she had mowed the lawns, done the edging, walked the dog and cooked dinner. J has the same disease I do, psoriatic arthritis (PsA). While I don’t know or understand the specific expressions of many other chronic conditions, this is one I do understand. J couldn’t see me, but if she could have, my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

Other conditions can be very similar, but I will stick with the disease I know for illustrative purposes today.

On a great note, for PsA management, J had certainly been moving. Movement is Medicine! However, J had probably used up more spoons or internal battery than she had available. All that in one day would cost her later, as she well knows from experience.

Society conditions us, well before we get sick, as we are growing up: doing our share, work ethic, earn our way. We then place expectations on ourselves. We don’t want to be sick, we don’t want to let others down by not doing our bit. In the first few years, of course, in the back of our minds we think it is temporary. To understand a bit more on that, you may like to read Will Society Adapt? When? How? Even we ourselves have to adapt to our new normal.

PsA is a very odd disease. At its worst for me, I can wake up in the morning with painful feet, ankles, knees, wrists, fingers; maybe even throw shoulders and neck in on a particularly bad day. I may have to use crutches to get around first thing in the morning. I’ll be unable to turn a tap on. Can’t lift the electric jug, struggle to open the coffee jar. Put on a bra? Are you kidding? Pull on tracksuit pants? Yeah, right. That sort of thing. About 11:30 am I’ll be fine. Virtually pain free. My body will have de-solidified. I’ll head out for a walk, go to the gym and do a weight training session. Sadly 160 kg leg presses aren’t happening any more, but maybe again one day…….. I am a completely different physical specimen at 4 pm than I am at 7 am. I saw my Plan B GP on Tuesday (Plan A was away), who hadn’t seen me for probably a year. She said “You look great!” This was 6:30 pm. I said to her, “You didn’t see me at 7 am!”

This can be VERY difficult for our friends, colleagues and family to understand. You need rest but you also need to go to the gym? That doesn’t make sense! Actually it does make sense and the reasons why are discussed in more detail in the above linked articles, so I won’t repeat myself.

We know, we can see it in their eyes. The doubt. The lack of comprehension of the situation.

We know people think we are just being lazy (at best) or hypochondriacs (at worst). J is right, it is VERY exhausting to be constantly explaining it to people, yet we know if we don’t explain it, if we don’t share the knowledge, social understanding and acceptance will never happen. We use analogies: spoons, internal batteries, even daisy petals. Over time our nearest and dearest do start to understand. If they want to.

If we live by the rules of pacing our activities and energy consumption, many of us can achieve a fantastic very nice quality of life, given our disease. The problem is, to OTHER people our rules can make us look lazy in their eyes – or at least that is how we can feel.

I work six hours a day. I have just entered my eighth year of having PsA, so I’ve had time and practice to build my personal pacing skills. Even so, I still feel guilty some days that I’m not “doing my fair share” at work. I have to lecture myself along the lines of this is what I MUST do or I won’t be able to work at all. I did try full-time for a while in 2019/2020 – it was WAY too much. Recently, we had a systems issue at work. That day I worked ten hours – I was petrified I was going to crash before we solved the problem. Thankfully, I didn’t, but those feelings and fears are what we live with every day. We don’t need to feel others are judging us because we MUST do less than they do in order to regain and retain quality of life and independence.

No, we do not have to vacuum the whole house in one day. A room a day would do!

No, we do not have to mow the whole lawn in one day. J, are you listening?

Spreading out those sort of tasks DOES NOT mean we are lazy. It means we are protecting our bodies, our internal battery and our quality of life.

Today I was going to go grocery shopping. But today is also weight training day. The grocery shopping can wait until tomorrow. Both on the same day would mean I wouldn’t be able to do what I have planned for tomorrow. Grocery shopping will fit with my plans for tomorrow as the overall intensity tomorrow is less.

We are not lazy. I am not lazy. Don’t let yourself be guilted into doing things that break your pacing rules, whatever they may be for you. The goal is to balance activity and energy so you achieve consistency in your state of health.

Robyn Dunphy3 Comments

Flaring

For the uninitiated, flares are what we chronic condition people call the times our condition (or conditions) decides to remind us it exists, usually in no uncertain terms.

Barb, who, like me, is a complex comorbid patient including psoriatic arthritis, sums up flares succinctly!

https://twitter.com/bps106/status/1388325116988116995

The unjoys! The phrase “Oh the joys!” is in common usage, the implication being something is not actually so joyful. But I love this new word. For me, it hits a home run.

I had one yesterday. While the experience is fresh in my mind, I’m writing about it. We tend to get used to them, they become just part of our new way of life, while healthy people can find the flares of others confronting.

If you are friend, family or colleague of a chronic condition person, or you are new to this chronic world, hopefully I provide some insight to “what happens”. Everyone is different, what I describe is specific to me, my conditions and my current circumstances, but should give readers a feel for flares generally. Flares can be long or short: once my right wrist flared for about eight hours, then was fine. No rhyme nor reason.

Yesterday’s flare was different. For a start, it was whole body, not just one joint.

I now realise it started on Wednesday. I was driving to the office and my upper arms were sore when dressing and driving. Sore upper arms usually means shoulder inflammation. Nothing too bad, but I did take panadol osteo to see me through the day. Driving home from the office that night I felt nauseous and sleepy and nearly drove through a red light. Not good.

Thursday was a little worse, more areas were sore. I was WFH that day, so I managed. Even my total knee replacement scar felt tight, stretched and tingly. This was a new thing. The joints at the base of my thumbs were sore. My right (unoperated) knee was painful. My right hip was grumpy. You don’t need the whole list!

I woke up Friday morning in a full flare. Not only did I have many sore bits, I had no energy. I had to work, because…. deadlines. At least I was working from home though. No meetings scheduled. I certainly would not have gone into the office, but I felt I could manage the most important tasks in solitude at home. I resorted to panadol osteo and a stronger pain med to get me through the day – I hoped.

Yesterday is the first time ever I have worked in my dressing gown. I am the sort that puts on the lippy and mascara every day, working from home or not. For me to not even get out of my dressing gown is an indication of how crap I was feeling. Healthy people reading this may be horrified at this admission – chronic people will be nodding their heads and thinking, “Oh, yes, know that feeling well.” I did 1,172 steps for the day, between my office and my kitchen mostly.

It is very hard to explain how awful it actually feels. I liken it to possibly feeling as if you have run a marathon – at least that is how I envisage a marathon runner may feel at the finish line. It is only the start of the day, but you feel done already. Like, literally, DONE! That’s before any pain is taken into account. Or maybe the old “run over by a truck” phrase is applicable.

I did manage to get through the work day, almost – I finished slightly early. I doubt my productivity was any way close to normal, but I got some important deadlines met. I will probably work a few hours this weekend to catch up on other tasks. If at all possible DO NOT DO THIS! If you are flaring, REST. I’m setting a bad example here, I know that – but my example also underlines the fact sometimes we are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

After I finished work I sat in an armchair and my lumber spine decided to be excruciating. It had, I’ll admit, been building as the day wore on, now it was awful. No idea why – my lumbar spine hasn’t been a problem since 2017 (except for changing the bed linen, that irritates it). Pain medication was required, most definitely. Then, I got stomach pains. My eyes were dry and irritable. Like, what next?

This morning I woke up feeling absolutely fine! Made myself a lovely cinnamon rolled oats and pink lady apple breakfast, have been for a 1.6 kilometre walk, had a coffee at my local café. After lunch I went to the gym for a strength training session. The only slightly sore bits are the joint at the base of my right little finger and only if I hyperextend it, plus my soon-to-be-operated on toes are a bit off (but that’s understandable). I have energy, I feel perfectly fine.

The flare is over, just like that. Gone.

What causes flares when we are on a stable medication that is working and we are doing all the right things (eating properly and sleeping, hydrating, exercise)?

I will never forget my rheumatologist saying to me in late 2014, “Get the stress out of your life.” Great advice, but easier said than done. While the evidence is pretty conclusive that stress exacerbates many conditions and causes flares, we still have to live life! Earn money to pay the bills.

If I stand back and look at what has been happening in my life during the last few weeks there are several factors that alone may not be a problem, but the culmination of the stress of each has resulted in this flare. If you are flaring more than usual, take a look at everything that is going on in your life in the time period preceding the flare. In my case, right at the moment:

  • Pending surgery, with a late change of surgeon
  • Late change of the actual surgery procedure (extra stuff)
  • Teaching a relief staff member to do my role while still doing my role
  • Usual work deadlines
  • Fitting extra pre-op tests into my schedule
  • Mountain of pre-op paperwork
  • Lack of exercise due to work hours and therefore internal battery depletion
  • 42 minute phone call to Medicare – even things like that add to the stress load
  • I’d let my dietary protein drop while distracted with the above concerns

There is stress related to each of the above. Any one item alone is probably not an issue: add them all up and the body goes “What are you doing to me????”

Realistically we can’t avoid these life stressors. We can’t necessarily spread them out over time to minimise the impact on us, sometimes they just all come together. I haven’t really flared for years. You might ask what about the knee surgery, did I flare then? No, but the list was smaller then. No late change of surgeon, no late change of proposed procedure, I wasn’t working at the time so no work-related pressures. I was getting exercise. Sure, I was unemployed and THAT alone is hugely stressful, but I was able to mentally put that on the top shelf out of sight while I concentrated on the knee. I knew the knee rectification was important in order to be able to get a job – I prioritised.

There is no way I could have avoided the culmination of the above stressors, it is just the way life has played out over the last week. I saw the new surgeon on Thursday, had to digest his unexpected news about what needed to be done, fit in an MRI on the Saturday, phone consult and decision on Tuesday, flare started Wednesday, Friday full conflagration.

Surprised I feel so fantastic today after feeling SO bad yesterday. It really is like getting into a brand new car: today I am driving a brand new car! Yet that is what flares can be like and why it can be hard for healthy people to understand or, worst still, easy for assumptions to be made about “it is all in your mind”. No, it isn’t: it is what happens physically.

If you are friend, family or colleague of a chronic person, including healthy looking chronic people, please be compassionate. Be supportive. We don’t like these flares, we don’t have them to inconvenience others!

If you are a chronic condition person, please share any advice or your experiences in the comments.

Robyn Dunphy6 Comments

We Need Personalised Numbers!

2,000 calories. 10,000 steps. These numbers float around and almost become related: subconsciously there can be a belief that if we do 10,000 steps a day we’ll be fine eating 2,000 calories a day! Will we?

2,000 calories a day is as much a myth as is the 10,000 steps a day. While there is always the caveat that the 2,000 is an average recommendation for the average person, etc etc, it is the 2,000 number that sticks in people’s minds.

Based on these rather wide, and self-reported, ranges, some pretty loose rounding happened, and the number 2,000 was settled on for a standard. In other words, not only was the calorie standard not derived based on prevalent scientific equations that estimate energy needs based on age, height, weight and physical activity levels, but the levels were not even validated to ensure that the self-reported ranges were actually accurate.

US News
From Samsung Health app

The 10,000 steps originally came from a marketing campaign.

The magic number “10,000” dates back to a marketing campaign conducted shortly before the start of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. A company began selling a pedometer called the Manpo-kei: “man” meaning 10,000, “po” meaning steps and “kei” meaning meter. It was hugely successful and the number seems to have stuck.

BBC .
Garmin Connect app

Readers who know me on social media know I am very big on getting my movement every day. This website originated from my personal dedication to Movement IS Medicine. So am I against pedometers? Not at all, I highly recommend pedometers. Just forget about the 10,000 steps a day.

Let’s look at each of these aspects of our lives separately. First, the calorie conundrum.

2,000 Calories?

My favourite illustration is the car fuel tank versus the human body. My car’s fuel tank capacity is 60 litres. No matter how hard I try, I can’t put more than 60 litres of petrol in that tank. My body? Ohhhh, I can consume as much fuel as I like. I would just keep expanding to store it all!

I have several factors at play:

  • I’m over 65 – age reduces our basal metabolic rate
  • I’m short
  • I have a chronic condition which limits my fuel burn
  • I’m on medications – medications can affect metabolism.

It would take me an hour of weight lifting in the gym on top of my three walks a day and 7,500 total steps to burn slightly over 2,000 calories a day. My usual burn would be 1,800 on a good activity day. On that basis, if I consumed 2,000 calories a day I’d be storing 200 calories a day. A rule of thumb is one kilogram of fat on the body is 7,000 calories, so I’ll let you do the maths on that. Yes, I lift weights and I walk, but not at the intensity required to be building too much lean muscle with that extra 200 calories a day!

In the image above from my Samsung Health app 1,352 calories a day is recommended for me given my age, weight, height and gender. It doesn’t know about my medical conditions or my medications – if it did, it might recommend less! That is 648 calories less that the 2,000 number that gets thrown around with abandon.

My nutritionist recommended 1,400 a day for me, just for comparison.

Everyone is different and we need to tailor our intake for our particular circumstances and output (burn). We also need to be very careful about what we eat as we have less calories to “fit in” the needed nutrients. For example, I aim for 1.5 grams of protein per kilo of body weight per day. The extra protein chews into my calorie allowance.

Those of us with chronic conditions that have a boom/bust aspect do not have the luxury of “burning it off tomorrow” either. We can’t “do extra” or we end up with a flat battery. It is all interwoven.

10,000 Steps?

I aim for 7,500 personally, at this time. A pedometer is a good way of measuring how much we are moving. It is not the number itself that is critical, it is the consistency. Not moving leads to de-conditioning which is not what we want as it has negative impacts on our bodies.

de-conditioning

A pedometer is also useful when it comes to calculating our pacing up. It is an indication of what we have done and therefore helps us calculate what our 10% increase target is. It doesn’t matter if the number is 2,000, 3,000 or 8,000. It is the relatively and consistency that matters.

I talk about steps as part of my movement regime because it is what I and many other people use. There are, of course, also many chronic condition patients who use other movement modalities. The underlying premise remains the same.

Tracking and Recording

I track and record because let’s face it, even healthy people forget they had a muffin at morning tea. Add cognitive impairment on top of that and it is easy to forget what we ate during the day. I’d be hopeless if I didn’t keep track. With only 1,400 calories to play with, I need to make sure I don’t accidentally eat 2,000!

The same with activity/movement. It is easy to think we moved more than we have and over time we find we’ve paced down unintentionally instead of UP. Our pain levels may increase as a result of less movement and more weight. Not what we want at all.

Personalised numbers are needed. Know our BMR, know our limits, work out our personal parameters and targets based on our individual circumstances and bodies: age, gender, height, weight, medications, conditions.

Robyn Dunphy3 Comments

Personal Energy Use

Early in my chronic illness life, I wrote an introductory article, Pacing for Beginners. More recently, I wrote about Pacing THRU, Pacing UP, Pacing DOWN.

Pacing, balancing my life, has become even more critical since starting a full-time job. The earlier articles talk about the spoon theory and the battery analogy. Today I’m going to stick with the battery analogy as we all understand what happens when our mobile phone battery dies. That’s it. The screen is dead. You can’t make a call. The only option you have is to recharge the battery.

I find energy difficult to write about. I can’t quantify it like I can quantify calories or steps or weights. Energy seems elusive, hard to pin down. Even though I am using the battery analogy, I don’t have a charge meter on my arm. I can’t tell how much battery I have left at any given point in time. So if it seems like I’m pondering as I write, it is because I am pondering as I write.

Many of us with chronic conditions are a bit like a mobile phone. The battery has a limited capacity. I’ve written about fatigue/lethargy before too, in When was the Last Time You Yawned? Working full-time hours again, I have had to revisit my condition management plan to ensure I avoid the dreaded Boom/Bust Cycle. So far, I’ve managed, although my weight training has taken a bit of a back step, sadly.

The difference between me and my phone is if my phone goes flat, I can plug it into power, turn it on and make a call. If my battery goes flat, that is it. Coffee is not going to help. A sugar hit is not going to help. In fact, either might make the situation worse. Imagine if that phone battery could actually go negative and had to be charged back up to zero before use, even when connected to power. THAT is how we can be (not how we can feel, how we can BE) if we are not careful, if we break the rules.

While I was working part-time, I had everything worked out beautifully for me. I got the exercise I needed, the sleep I needed, I did my job well. I never let myself get a flat battery.

While I was not working in the early part of 2020 my plan was to pace up my exercise to build physical resilience in readiness for a new job. With the success of my new treatment, I could do this. There were some interruptions! A knee put me in hospital, then Covid-19 lockdowns followed by a total knee replacement meant things were a bit stop-start, but I was way ahead of where I had been at, say, the end of 2016.

Working full-time has changed how I can arrange my time and also shone a light on the fact the boom/bust cycle is still very much a risk. There have been times at the end of the work day where I quite simply feel my brain shut down. It goes from 90 miles an hour to a dead stop. Nothing I can do about it. The battery is dead. It isn’t just about physical activity, this battery also runs our brain.

It is challenging for people who have no prior experience of these sorts of conditions to understand what happens. After all, many of us, myself included, LOOK fine! It took my daughter some time to come to grips with it, but she now asks “Do you have enough spoons, Mum?” when suggesting something.

I’ve become better at declining social invitations – no, not on an evening before a work day, or no, not two events on one day.

Every activity we do uses battery power. Showering, drying our hair, driving, working, exercising, cooking. In my experience some things use more battery power depending on the time of day: driving is a classic example. Driving for one hour in the morning is not nearly as tiring as driving for one hour in the evening after a day at work. It is almost as if once the battery gets low, it depletes faster. We have to be aware of all these things. I don’t want to cause a fatal car accident because I lose concentration because I haven’t paid heed to my battery level. Look at the pace column of my walks in the image above. the first walk of the day is the fastest, the last is the slowest. This is a constant pattern.

Early in my journey, I would have been unable to do a weight training session and grocery shopping on the same day. That would have used way too much of my battery. Even now, I shower in the evenings. Why? Because I can do it at a slower pace in the evenings and I am not using up vital battery life I need for the work day.

A good night’s sleep should recharge us, you say? We wish that were true. In many cases it is true – unless we have drained too much – then we end up in that negative charge scenario. Not good. However, disrupted sleep is often a symptom experienced by those with chronic conditions. Imagine trying to charge your flat phone, but the charger plug keeps falling out of the phone overnight. In the morning your phone battery is still at only 50%. That can be us.

Strength can fluctuate as well. I happily did 32 kilogram chest press sets one day with every intention of increasing next visit. Next visit I struggled with 25 kilograms. Why? No idea. By no idea, I mean no rational “healthy” explanation. Just that day my body said, “No, not today”.

Endurance is linked to our battery too. Some days I can walk two kilometres easily in one walk – other days I have to stick to three separate one kilometre walks. I’ll feel exactly the same at the start of any walk – then sometimes the body just says, “No, not today”. Part of this is linked to my not having the time available at the moment to consistently Pace UP. Between work and weather I have been limited to grabbing my walks in a somewhat patchy manner which breaks all the rules of pacing. Consistency is key. I’m not getting consistency. I suspect similar applies to the weights.

It is very hard to explain to people what this whole energy thing is like. How we constantly have to be aware of how much battery we’ve used. Healthy people would not, for example, think of having a shower as using energy, or should I say using any great amount of energy. I can assure you, many of the chronic illness community will attest to having to rest after a shower.

In my last article I raved, quite rightly, about the medication I am on. I also stated it hadn’t completely solved the energy/lethargy/fatigue aspect, or the “brain fog”. Despite my writing about energy today, these aspects are still much improved from where I was three years ago. To give some sense of measurement, three years ago I was working 24 hours a week and Saturday morning would always be a recovery morning – I’d do nothing until at least noon. Now I am working 38 or more hours a week and I’m actively doing something by 10 am on Saturdays. I might be at the gym, grocery shopping, doing laundry: I’m active. So a major improvement. And some quantification, which makes me happy!

However, I’ve had to cut my second weight session a week because the energy required to drive to the gym, do weights, drive back and then shower is more than I can manage at the end of a work day. I rarely write any more because usually by the end of the work day my brain has said, “No, not today”. I started this article on December 31, it is now January 16 and I still feel this is very scrappy writing. On the other hand it is a very scrappy topic: as I said I can’t quantify it very well. My thoughts about it come and go: after all, we learn, over time, to live with it. It becomes our new normal. At the same time we recognise that our healthy friends, family and co-workers can be baffled by something they have no experience of and it is not visible.

When I wake up in the morning, assuming I haven’t overdone it the day before, I feel perfectly “normal” just as I did before I became a chronic condition patient. The main difference is at the end of the day I will NOT feel as I did at the end of a day back then. Furthermore, depending how much “charge” I use during the day, I could hit that flat battery state earlier in the day. Other patients will not be as fortunate as I am, I am aware of that. So readers, just because I say I can do something, DO NOT, please do not, assume your mother, father, sibling, friend or co-worker can. They may be “better” or “worse” that I. I am simply n=1 – I’m not a study, I’m just one example trying to explain what it can be like!

As I write, at the beginning of 2021, I am very concerned for the long haul Covid-19 patients, many of whom cite fatigue as an ongoing issue. While the studies of this phenomenon may shed scientific light on ME/CFS, we will also have more chronic patients. My thoughts on society and chronic conditions are expressed in Society and Chronic Health Conditions. As communities, we have challenges ahead.

Robyn Dunphy8 Comments

Engaging the Correct Muscles

You did it! You went to a physiotherapist or exercise physiologist (EP) or personal trainer (PT) and you now have a resistance training programme! Congratulations, you have taken another step in managing your chronic condition.

Even though I am qualified, I still seek the assistance of other professionals when I deem it appropriate. I did recently, with my osteoarthritic knee.

One of the exercises I have to do currently is the TRX supported squats shown in the above photo. As I was doing them alone I realised, “Hang on a minute, I’m using my arms to pull myself up!” This, of course is not the idea at all with squats – the target muscles to work are the lower body! Yes, in this case I am using the TRX to support, but I still need those lower body muscles to do at least some of the work!

While we are under the watchful eye of our physio, EP or PT they are watching closely and monitor that we are engaging the correct muscles. Technique isn’t just about holding correct form (e.g. a straight back), it is also about using the right muscles.

Once we are on our own, not being monitored, we have to ensure we are feeling the right muscles working. Sometimes that is harder than others. During a leg extension exercise it is a little harder to cheat, but those TRX squats? Quite easy to cheat. Especially for those of us with chronic conditions trying to rebuild our physical strength and resilience.

When you are in the gym by yourself working your program, check the pictures on the item of equipment (if you are using equipment), there should be some like this.

Concentrate on feeling those muscles working.

Where there is no pictorial reminders or guidance, there is usually a gym instructor on duty who won’t mind checking your technique for a moment or two if you ask.

During your physio, EP or PT consultation, make sure you are clear on exactly which muscles you should be engaging when doing each exercise and make sure you concentrate on feeling them working when you are on your own.

We want our time spent exercising to have therapeutic value, after all!

Bonus Reading for Psoriatic Arthritis patients:

A resistance exercise program improves functional capacity of patients with psoriatic arthritis: a randomized controlled trial

Robyn DunphyLeave a comment

Ditch Your Handbag!

Even for well people, this situation is not good. For many people with a chronic condition (perhaps a musculoskeletal condition), it is even worse. It is vital we pay attention to our posture and our body balance. By body balance I don’t mean standing on one foot (although that IS a very good exercise) I mean ensuring our muscle strength and length on each side of our body is balanced, that our chest and upper back muscles are balanced. For every push exercise, we balance with a pull exercise. Rock hard quads are great, but don’t ignore the hamstrings!

What has that to do with handbags? Look at the photo. If I walk around too often like the middle image, what do you think might, over time, happen to my shoulders? The muscles on one side will be over worked and I may develop a postural abnormality. This can lead to pain and most of us do not want that.

If you rarely use a handbag, fantastic. However if you are travelling to and from work on public transport five days a week, then walking around town (getting incidental exercise) at lunch time, the hours add up.

Even if you do not yet have a condition to manage, this handbag on one shoulder habit is still not a good thing. Slinging a backpack on one shoulder is exactly the same effect. Not a good thing. Because we are creatures of habit, we do tend to use the same shoulder each time. If we swapped it around evenly, it might not be so bad.

You may keep a pretty handbag for social events. Or a businesslike one for job interviews. Other than that, ditch the handbag and invest in a backpack. Or several. There are a wide variety around these days and many look remarkably like handbags or can be disguised as one quickly if necessary.

There are even ones that can be brought around to the front for access without taking them off – very nifty.

If you do not have the shoulder mobility to use a backpack and you carry a handbag, remember to share the load between arms.

Short and sweet, just my tip of the day!

 

Robyn Dunphy2 Comments
chronic conditions care courage consistency coaching

Care, Consistency, Courage and Coaching

Chronic Conditions

Care, consistency, courage and coaching are my “4 Cs” of chronic condition management.

Care

There are different types of care. Top of the list is great medical care. You must have a good relationship with your primary care provider (general practitioner, GP). I’m not suggesting you be family friends who go out for dinner (that could be difficult) but you should feel comfortable that your GP “gets” you and that you trust their level of care. This is the medical professional on your team that herds the cats (your specialists) and keeps the information flowing, in a sense the gate-keeper.

Self-care is extremely important. Self-care isn’t all bubble baths and scented candles, although those are nice. Self-care includes doing the things you MUST do to maximise your health, minimise your pain. Making the time to do stretches, walk, swim, lift weights, sleep, eat well: “doing the hard yards” as my father would say. Yes, the other sort of self-care, the time-out, rest, relax: also very important.

Mental health care is extremely important. As I have written about that in “We Need Mental Health as well as Physical Health, I won’t say more here. Reducing stress is part of mental health care.

Being careful is also a form of care. One example I have written about before is changing exercises where necessary. My own example is I no longer do dumbbell chest press because getting off the bench irritates my spine.

Being careful with our body weight is important – for many, weight gain can mean increased pain levels.

breakfast
Breakfast

Consistency

Consistency is paramount. When we were healthy, our bodies could recover from a week or two of no exercise, a night on the booze or day of crap food. Sure, we may have suffered a hangover or the scales may have jumped a kilogram, but we easily recovered from the damage.

Once we have a chronic condition/illness/disease not only are our bodies not as resilient, we are likely on medications that, while doing very good things for us, may also compromise other aspects of our “internal workings”. My own example is my rheumatoid arthritis (RA) medication suppresses my immune system – logical when you think about it, of course, given RA is an autoimmune condition, my own immune system attacking me. This means I have to be super careful not to catch bugs/viruses, as I recently did. I ended up in ED with what felt like a ping-pong ball in my throat.

Exercise, such as stretching and resistance training, will stop your body deconditioning and greatly assist with pain management. However, the gains we make can be lost VERY quickly once our bodies are unwell. Consistency is vital to ensure we maintain our gains and keep building on our achievements. I have discussed exercise in more detail in Doctors and Exercise, so please click that link for a more comprehensive presentation about the importance of exercise.

de-conditioning

During a consultation with my endocrinologist he asked, “Do you take your meds?” Frankly, I was shocked – what a strange thing to ask, I thought, of course I take my medications! He asked because my thyroid was misbehaving again and my blood tests were not within the reference range – again. Clearly some patients don’t take their medications as prescribed.

Most medications for chronic conditions require consistency to be effective. If you feel the dose or the medication isn’t working as it should, TALK TO THE SPECIALIST before changing anything. You may do more harm than good. If the problem is remembering, set alarms in your phone. Some medications can take three or more months to reach the required level of effectiveness.

Be consistent. With medications, exercise, diet, rest, sleep, hydration.

consistent exercise
Consistent daily steps

Even if you have to dance to get there!

Courage

Yes, courage. It takes courage to start AND to keep up the fight. “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek”. The treasure is maintaining quality of life for as long as possible. For some, the cave is MOVEMENT! It can be hard to think about movement when we are in pain. Or we feel we can’t “keep up” in the gym. Today is my swimming day. The predicted high is 13 Celsius. Do I REALLY want to get into my bathers and hit the pool, or would I prefer chocolate cake and a nip of Bailey’s Irish Cream? Consistency! Courage! Just do it!

leg press

The benefits are worth it. I have avoided a knee replacement and radiofrequency denervation of the lumber spine. Yes, I MAY need both some time in the future (distant future, I hope) but for the moment, I’m good. I’m on no pain medications.

Four years ago I started with four x 5 minute walks a day.

Now a gym session looks like this:

  • 4 sets leg press
  • 3 sets chest press
  • 3 sets shoulder press
  • 1 set body weight squats
  • 3 sets Smith Machine squats
  • 3 sets tricep extensions
  • 3 sets bicep curls
  • 3 sets lat pulldowns
  • 3 sets leg extensions
  • 3 sets pec dec
  • 8 minutes on the rowing machine

I got VERY annoyed recently when I lost muscle strength and had to drop my leg press weight down from 160 kgs. While we still don’t have a medical explanation, I am building back up again, so perhaps it was just a temporary glitch. We have temporary glitches.

I didn’t get to where I am now without care, consistency and courage.

Coaching

Professional athletes all have coaches. They have goals. WE also have goals (hopefully SMART goals)!

Perhaps we need to look at ourselves as endurance QOLs –  Quality of Life is the goal we strive for, not necessarily running 3,100 kilometres in 45 days! Our mental challenge can be just as extreme, even if our physical achievements are not. 8 Steps to Retain/Regain Quality of Life

People are all different, conditions vary greatly. Even so, the sooner you start managing your condition instead of your condition managing you, the better your chances of retaining your quality of life for as long as possible.

Sometimes all that is needed is help to get started. Sometimes a patient may prefer longer term support and encouragement.

Coaching helps the chronic condition patient take control. There is a fifth “C” – Control!

Too often patients feel they are “OK for the moment, I’ll worry about all this later” (when my job is not so stressful/the kids are older/the house is paid off). My advice is don’t wait. Start now to protect your future.

Contact me for a confidential chat as a starting point.

Note this article is intended for chronic condition patients who have a medical clearance or medical advice to exercise. This can be at any level from beginner.

Robyn Dunphy4 Comments

Hydration Habits – Are You Drinking Enough?

Yes, the dreaded word – HYDRATION. Are you monitoring your fluid intake? Is it enough?

I, as an exercise professional, should have this down pat. Of course I drink two litres of water every day! Or do I? See if any of this rings true for you.

Yesterday I had a few minor disruptions to my day. Who doesn’t have disruptions? Driving home from the vet with my cat (THAT is a WHOLE other story!), I realised all I had drunk all day was three cups of coffee. One with breakfast, one after my manicure and one with lunch. It was now 6:30 pm. So I had drunk no more than 660 mls of white coffee. I’d had yoghurt on my breakfast, not even milk! I had thrown down the morning medications with some water, but what was that? 100 mls max?

As we get older there is an added problem – we tend not to recognise we are thirsty. Even before that stage of life hits us, we can think we are hungry when we are actually thirsty – and for those of us managing our weight in order to manage pain, eating instead of drinking is not a wonderful thing.

At my desk job I am good. As soon as I arrive in the office, I fill this water container. it is 900 mls and I finish it by lunch time. Refill, repeat.

When working out I am good! I may be a little too pink, but I’m good.

OK, you got me, two of those are protein shakers, but the shot does illustrate maybe I should try a change of colour next time. I DO have a dark blue water bottle as well. I’m not exactly short of water bottles: one permanently in the office, one permanently in my gym pack and a third floating about.

It is when I am home I find I am very slack. Why can’t I do the same thing at home as I do meticulously in the office and the gym, even at the pool? I do not know. I am working very hard on establishing better personal hydration habits.

It seems at home the water bottle is just never where I am. If I’m in the lounge, the water bottle is in the kitchen. If I’m in the kitchen, the water bottle is in the bedroom. Plus I have a tendency not to use a water bottle at home: I have a tap and glasses right there, after all!

It is spring in Australia, at least it is spring in the states that have four seasons! The blossoms are everywhere in Melbourne. In parts of Australia we are having a terrible drought, nothing is growing, in fact much is not surviving, let alone growing.

Like plants, we don’t do well without adequate and appropriate hydration. The Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council has good detail about our need for water. Please click on that link and read the detail. Emphasis added in the quotation below.

Dehydration of as little as 2% loss of body weight results in impaired physiological responses and performance. The reported health effects of chronic mild dehydration and poor fluid intake include increased risk of kidney stones (Borghi et al 1996, Hughes & Norman 1992, Iguchi et al 1990, Embon et al 1990), urinary tract cancers (Bitterman et al 1991, Wilkens et al 1996, Michaud et al1999), colon cancer (Shannon et al 1996) and mitral valve prolapse (Lax et al 1992) as well as diminished physical and mental performance (Armstrong et al 1985, Brooks & Fahey 1984, Brouns et al 1992, Cheung et al 1998, Kristel-Boneh et al 1988, Torranin et al 1979, Sawka & Pandolf 1990).

If you feel thirsty, you are probably already dehydrated. If you have a medical issue that compromises your ability to recognise thirst, you need to be extra vigilant.

Adult men need about 2.6 litres of fluid a day and adult women about 2.1 litres. This is over and above the fluid intake from food. More may be required depending on activity levels, climate and body weight. Medibank has a handy calculator based on age and gender, but it does not take into account climate extremes, exertion or body weight.

Around 50-80% of our body weight is water. The higher our lean mass, the higher the water content. We need water for most body processes including digestion, absorbing and transporting nutrients, disposing of waste products and keeping our body temperature stable.

Source: Medibank

It is said our skin looks better if we are properly hydrated. From my personal experience, I totally agree. Dehydration can add years to the face and who wants that? Not me!

Those of us with health challenges need to make sure we give our bodies all the help we can: hydration is important.

How are your hydration habits? Please share in the comments.

Robyn Dunphy2 Comments