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For me, managing everyday activities is a job because of my chronic illnesses.
I daily experience overwhelming fatigue and pain. Some days, I fight bacterial infections or an upset stomach due to my diseases — common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), Crohn’s disease and arthritis.
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Every 21 days, I receive plasma infusions to replenish my antibodies. I take copious amounts of antibiotics, pain relievers and pills to calm my digestive tract.
It’s extremely hard to explain what life is like to family and friends. Sometimes, I must do less on one day because I know the next day is going to be busier and full of more activities.
Enter Spoon Theory.
One night in 2003, when Christine Miserandino was a college student, was with her roommate at a diner when she took her lupus medication. Like me, Miserandino is one of the one in six Americans who live with a chronic illness.
Miserandino’s former roommate and best friend asked what it was like to live with lupus.
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"She came to doctors with me, she saw me walk with a cane and throw up in the bathroom," Miserandino wrote in her blog, “But You Don’t Look Sick.” "She had seen me cry in pain; what else was there to know?"
Miserandino tried her best to explain to her friend how frustrating and exhausting it was trying to keep up with her peers while struggling with her disease.
That’s when she came up with Spoon Theory.
Grabbing spoons from nearby tables, Miserandino explained that each proverbial spoon is an amount of energy for each daily task. Each spoon helps a person budget the amount of energy they are able to spend in a day. Here are some examples of my expense sheet:
Showering = 1 spoon
Drying hair = 1 spoon
Putting on makeup = 1 spoon
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