A follower Asked….

A Facebook friend and follower who has Nystagmus, asked me to offer some tips on how to manage Nystagmus while you are sick.

As always, I advise this friend and all my followers that If you are having any kind of medical or mental problems, please seek proper medical care.

Even though I am not a medical professional, and I am not offering any medical advice, I want to offer five tips that has helped me feel better when I have been sick. I hope that these tips answer this follower’s question.

1. Admit that you are sick and that you need to rest.

We all lead busy lives and sometimes we just carry on with what we are doing. When you have a sever sickness, you need to admit that you are sick stay home. I had to convince myself of this during my high school days. I used to go into school just to take one test then go to the office to go and get checked out. This did not help me or school community.

2. Drink plenty of fluids.

When I was a young child, I loved chicken broth and Sprite. This helped me with any sore throat that I may of had.

3. Get some sleep! Sleep is so important with your health. Not only is it important when you’re sick, but also when you are well. When I am sick, I can feel my Nystagmus go even faster. My eyes hurt a lot more than normal. Therefore, when we take an extra nap, it really reduces our eye movements and sooth our achy eyes.
4. Go to the doctor when needed.

This was an important lesson I had to learn as a teenager. When I was seventeen, I had a kidney infection. For one month before my diagnosis, I kept saying to myself, “You’re not sick, you just threw your back out during P.E.” That was a big lie. The pain made me cry and sent me to the Emergency Room. As a result, I received two bags of fluids to decrease my heartrate and blood pressure. I had to stay overnight. If I had gone to my general practitioner earlier I would not have had to go through all that.

5. Don’t let stress make your immune system weak after you have made a full recovery.

People with Nystagmus know stress can increase their eye movements.  I missed three days school due to my kidney infection. As a result, I fell behind with my school work. This stressed me out! My stress increased even further when I learned that school policy only allowed me three days to get back on track with my work. I should have paced myself. I felt rushed because of this deadline, and increased my anxiety and stress levels which made me feel weaker after my recovery.

I am sure that there are many more tips that I could have offered. If you can think of something, that you would like to add tell me in the comments below.

Disclaimer: If you are experiencing any problems with your physical or mental health please seek proper medical care.

If you have a question you would like to ask me feel free to email me at: amanda@amandagene.com