Monday, April 18, 2011

HAWMC Prompt 18: Daily Schedule

I'm participating in WEGO Health's Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge (HAWMC) in April.

Today's challenge is to write a list of my daily routine from the moment I get up until the moment I go to bed.

My daily schedule depends very much on how I'm feeling. This is extremely frustrating for me! I've always been a to-do list sort of person. Before my accident, I would write out a daily and/or weekly to-do list. I still have lists (mainly because my memory seems to no longer work); but they're more open-ended, unless there's actually something scheduled (e.g., doctor appointments). It's difficult for me to gauge what I can actually accomplish versus what I want or need to accomplish in a day. I'm getting better at knowing that all tasks are going to take me longer than they used to. I can write a realistic to-do list for a day (a day with pain below migraine-level); but problems with pain interfere so often that I rarely do this anymore. 

A "good"/non-migraine day looks like this:
  • Wake up; Brush teeth
  • Check email; Read some articles in Google Reader
  • Eat breakfast; Take meds
  • Blog - read/write
  • Eat lunch; Take meds
  • Do a few things around the apartment (pick up, organize, etc)
  • Watch TV/movie
  • Eat whatever I can for dinner (poor appetite from meds)
  • Blog - read/write
  • Take meds; Snack
  • Update health calendar/diary
  • Brush teeth; Go to bed
* Jeremy and I walk together for 10-15 minutes, whenever I'm feeling well enough to (which hasn't been very frequently, lately).
** We sometimes play games (Yahtzee, Phase 10, Uno, Farkle, SkipBo, Chameleon) together.


Photo by matsuyuki
A bad/migraine day looks more like this:
  • Wake up
  • Brush teeth
  • Eat breakfast; Take meds
  • Have Jeremy give me a shot
  • Lay around on the couch - watch a movie, try to rest/nap
  • Eat whatever I can for lunch and dinner
  • Check email and blog, if I feel up to it (definitely limited/not for very long)
  • Take meds
  • Update health calendar/diary
  • Brush teeth
  • Go to bed


I've been so blessed to have Jeremy around the apartment to help take care of me, especially since I've had trouble taking care of myself for a while. He cooks and takes care of a lot of the housework; though I love to help, when I'm able to. We enjoy doing our own thing (he plays computer games, I blog/write), but it's been nice to be able to spend so much time with him.
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