Attempting to Stay Hydrated

These days everyone knows how important it is to stay hydrated. So, instead of giving a lecture on the virtues of getting your 8 glasses of water a day, I'm going to explain how I get them. In treating Lyme it is especially important to stay hydrated because doing so can really take the edge off some of the symptoms. In my case, staying hydrated keeps my blood pressure from getting too low, helps regulate my heart rate and control tachycardia, and makes getting IVs much faster and easier. In an attempt to limit trips to the kitchen, I've come up with a system or routine. Most days, I'm in too much pain to walk comfortably from my bedroom to the kitchen but I go through water so quickly that I find myself having to get up all the time. Now, I have a rotation of two glasses and two bottles. During the day, I fill one glass and both bottles every time I go to the kitchen. Not only is water pretty much the only thing I drink all day, but I take so many pills throughout the day that it's become necessary to keep lots of it around. So, even if I wasn't actively trying to drink plenty of water, I think it would just happen as a natural consequence of taking 30 or so pills a day. I can't drink ice water because my teeth are too sensitive so I drink only cool water from the glass. The nice thing about bottles is that they can only get so cold then they go back to room temperature the longer they sit out. The bottles are especially useful  for when the glass has been sitting out too long, like during a nap or after 12 or 14 hours of sleep. Also, having bottles of water and that extra glass around at all times makes it convenient to make my Parsley and Burbur detox tonics throughout the day. Before bed, one of the bottles goes into the refrigerator so I can grab it quickly on my way out the door to whatever appointment I have that day. As you will learn, I do actually have appointments every single day. I realize that none of this is rocket science. But, when pain rules your life and every step you take has to be planned, getting a water routine down becomes important. I realize that this may not be especially interesting so I hope that it is at least useful.

Introduction

Welcome to The Lyme Light. It is my intention to offer insight and support to fellow Late-Stage Lyme Disease, Dysautonomia and Chronic Illness sufferers. I hope to record, organize, and present all of my experiences in living with and treating these diseases. It's difficult to know where to begin. Should I start by defining Lyme Disease, its symptoms, stages, diagnosis, and treatment? Or, should I dive right in and tell my story starting with today? However I begin, I plan to cover these and many other topics.

I'd like to see this blog grow into a collection of angles that comprise a total picture of life with a chronic illness. I want to present current and accurate disease and treatment information. I want to record my experiences and treatment. I want to offer tips I've picked up along the way to make this process as easy and comfortable as possible. I want to present an honest account of chronic illness and how managing it has become my entire life.

I will not hold anything back. I intend to discuss every last hideous detail. As an intensely private person, this commitment may prove harder to keep than I'm anticipating. My daily journal posts will likely be redundant and depressing and agonizingly full of minutiae. I won't pretend for a moment that this blog is meant to be an entirely selfless resource for fellow sufferers. Far from it. This is as much a self-indulgent compulsion as it is any of the above mentioned.

What you won't find here is arbitrary hope or abbreviations. If I'm having a particularly bad day, I will discuss it and leave it at that. I will not punctuate my description with a positive statement about hope and keeping a positive attitude. The relationships between hope, expectations, and compliance will be the topic of many, many posts to come. I will not abbreviate the names of medications and infections. If I say that I took 100 mg of Doxycycline today, you will see the word 'doxycycline' not 'doxy'. If I discuss the common co-infection Babesia, you will see the word 'babesia' not 'babs'. This, I imagine, will be a cumbersome task. This may seem unimportant or unnecessary to you. I think it simply makes for better reading.