#spoonie hack

I made myself a homemade electrolyte drink using a 2qt dollar tree pitcher, Kool-Aid, powdered sugar, lemon juice, salt, and vibes it's what I had in the house.

Flavor or miss the flavor gets watered down after adding water to fill it to the top so you can use it another Kool-Aid packet if you want. hydration hit. after a draining doctor appointment for my husband, I’m still standing — and not crispy-dry for once. it’s doing so good on my body, especially with POTS/dysautonomia stuff.

no fancy Liquid IV. just broke bitch science & survival. if you’re disabled, low energy, or can’t afford fancy hydration stuff this works. ✌🏾🥤

🌈 Recipe (2 quart pitcher):

1 packet unsweetened Kool-Aid

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp table salt

2 tbsp lemon juice

8 cups water

(optional: 1/4 tsp baking soda)

I also suggest using a coffee mug to warm up the water and dissolve your salt and sugar. chill. sip slow.

flavor can be boosted w/ extra Kool-Aid or lemon juice if watering it down.

It's a game changer.

I can't tell you how many spoons this has saved me.

It can clean ANYTHING: dishes, silverware, my flip flops, my arms after being in the garden (removes plant oils), the sink, the toilet, you name it -- its a GOD.

Flaredown:

This app was designed by patients for patients and so far im really enjoying it. It allows me to input and track the severity of specific conditions on any given day, the severity of the symptoms im experiencing as well as what types of treatment or aid ive used in a day. All of these catagories are personalized upon set up, which granted does take a bit to do if you want to get really intense with your data, and you can continue to add any new symptoms or conditions as time goes on. You also have the ability to track foods that you eat (especially helpful with trying to narrow down allergies and reactions) and tag the day. The app then presents all of this data in an easy to read and exportable chart that i plan to print and take to my next doctors appointment.

For those that have trouble remembering to fill out things like this every day, i have it set up to send an email at a set time reminding me to input my information for that day.

When you open the app after set up, you are prompted to check in with your info for that day. The first page after the prompt looks like this:

As you can see, the first page deals with conditions and asks you to rate your condition’s activity that day from innactive to extremely active on a color coordinated sliding scale. On this page you are able to add any new diagnosis at any check in and, unlike many similar apps ive seen, the number of conditions and symptoms you are able to input is unlimited.

This second page is for symptoms. As I said before the number you’re able to input is unlimited and you can create your own new catagory if one isn’t exactly what you’re looking for. The rating scale is the same as the conditions page and the chart is similarly color coded for easy visualization.

This next page deals with treatments used in a day. For me this is where i would input data on any assistance device or human assistance ive used in a day as well as track any heat and cold pack useage or rest my body has forced me to take. This section also is really helpful for tracking medications as well. You can either check off that you’ve taken your meds that day or input specific dosages of medications which, I imagine would be very helpful in the case of pain meds that need tracking.

The next two catagories share a page and deal with foods eaten in a day (though keep in mind it does not have a calorie counter so if that’s something you’re looking for you would need a separate app) and tags that i use to track home im feeling emotionally on a given day. Like the other categories you are able to personalize the selections and the app does remember youre most recent ones for easy adding.

The last two photos are of the charts that are produced from all your input data. Each dot represents a separate day and is clearly plotted on a line graph to show daily change in condition or symptom activity. Both the symptoms and conditions themselves are represented on the line graph whereas in my experience the treatment just shows whether or not that treatment was used on a specific day.

Flaredown does also have a journal function and a pattern function to help you track whether specific activities or foods have an impact on your condition. I havent used either of these functions yet or the connect function that allows you to chat with other users but if you do, let me know what you think!

Tally:

This app is very straightforward and simply keeps tally of whatever information you want to count. Personally i use the app to track twitches and muscle tremors and how many times i lose balance/ fall in a day.

My set up looks like this and is very simple however, this app would be great for tracking water intake, any symptom occurrences you may have in a day as well as helping to keep track of any medications you may take. This information, is also presented in a simple color coordinated graph that you can view in a week window in a bar graph format that can be downloaded or emailed and printed. Unfortunately i seem to have hit my photo limit and am unable to show you what the graph looks like.

In the IPhone this app does have a widget available from the lockscreen though im not sure if android has a comparable feature. Ive found it very convenient to keep track of occurrences throughout the day without having to go through my phone.

Both of these apps have functions that ive found to be very useful and i hope you will think so as well. If you have any other recommendations I’d love to hear them!

Searching the Stars ✨

Kenna

For those who showed interest or requested to be tagged:

These are reusable hand warmers. I got them from Amazon. I think they are a great spoonie hack.

I use them for blood draws and ivs. 

Recently, I used it on my arm and the nurse got the iv in one shot!

It is amazing because the nurses usually tell me that I literally have one vein.

The heat makes the veins pop. If you have a hard time with blood draws or ivs, I suggest looking into reusable hand warmers.

Something I would recommend is to splurge a little on your bath and shower products.

Since you won't go through them fast, might as well go for the nicer stuff or just add a little extra to your skin care.

Doesn't even have to be expensive. I added a moisturizer that is face and body in one. I use it in the bath and shower after I'm done washing, before I step out of the tub.

When you're dying of heat and also pain and have to lay down and also have the be under blankets for sensory reasons, just surround yourself with ice packs.

Is it weird to be spooned and spoon several ice packs? Probably.