Hi! I’m Grace, a 20-something-year-old from a small town in Illinois.
I spend a ton of time talking about whatever books or tv shows I am currently obsessed with and telling stories about my nieces (Kenzi, age 10, and Quinn, age 7).
I also love playing games with my family (Cribbage and Euchre are my favorites).
I was 15 when I started having symptoms (headaches, migraines, fatigue, dizziness, and passing out among the worst). It took about 6 months to get a diagnosis (which I now know is much shorter than it takes for many people, but at the time, this felt like an eternity). I went to many different doctors who could not figure out what was wrong.
When I got my diagnosis (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), I cried (tears of joy) because it finally had a name! I wasn’t crazy! I wasn’t going to die! I had been so focused on the diagnosis that I was 100% convinced that now life could go back to “normal”. It took a while for it to really sink in why it is called a chronic illness.
During that time, people would send me Get Well Soon cards. At first, I liked getting them, but once the chronic illness part really sunk in, I HATED it! I realize that they were sent with good intentions and were effectively a “thinking of you” card, but at the time, they felt like a slap in the face. I wasn’t going to get “well” soon! Didn’t they know that?!
I was 16 and thought that if I couldn’t get my old life back, if I couldn’t get “well”, then my life was over!
Around this time, I learned about the spoon theory for chronic illnesses. It was the perfect analogy for explaining fatigue and what life was like with a chronic illness.
I realized my life might be different, but I still had a life. I also realized that while I couldn’t control the fact that I had an illness, I could take steps to try to make it more manageable and improve my quality of life. I could try to make the most out of my spoons (the little energy I had)!
About Maximize Spoons
I bought this domain (maximizespoons.com) on the 10-year anniversary of my diagnosis. A decade with a chronic illness—ahhh! I really wanted everything I have learned in the past 10 years (and learned the hard way) to be useful to people other than just me. I want to help other people with chronic illnesses.
What kind of content can you expect to find?
I have found a lot of blogs/forums/Facebook groups for people with chronic illnesses to be incredibly depressing and disheartening. Don’t get me wrong, venting absolutely has its place, but I want this blog to be a helpful place you can feel good about visiting.
That’s why the health topics I cover will be limited to mindset, and the tips that I have found work for me and want to share in case they can work for you too.
This website will also focus on the other areas of your life that are impacted by your illness.
An illness is pervasive. It doesn’t just impact your health. It impacts your school, hobbies, and relationships. It limits job options and requires a change in mindset. These are the things that I will be talking about.
If you, too, have health problems, I absolutely do wish that you could get “well”. I wish good health and an absence of pain and suffering for everyone. But unfortunately, I do not have a magic wand (boy, I wish I did!). What I do have is a decade of experience that I want to use to help you make the most out the spoons you have!
Where to start?
Look around. I hope you can find some helpful information.
I’d also love to hear from you all with any comments, questions, or ideas for posts you would like to see. Email me at [email protected] or use the connect with me buttons.