The Flare Up Fighting Kit 🦼😶‍🌫️🧠🚻😭😫

Rag_793

Each of us has our own challenges that we face each and every single day, strong, survivor are just a few words to describe us.

We have good days, meh days, arrrrrrr days, painful days, days that are so dark that it paralyses us, days that we don’t feel heard, not one single day is the same, in fact we can cycle through so many emotions in one day that it leaves us exhausted beyond belief, days where we cannot get out of bed and much much more.

I follow a lady on You Tube called Jenni, whose You Tube channel is called Chronically Jenni. Jenni is disabled & chronically ill content creator, model, disability advocate, public speaker and voice over artist. Jenni posts chronic illness hacks, disability education and awareness posts, alongside joy, fashion and adventures.

https://youtube.com/%40chronicallyjenni?si=ASqiTucD2jrmJCiY

It was one of Jenni’s posts the other week, that had me thinking and mulling over. Jenni short video was about having a Flare Up Bag for everyday life when we have Flare Up in our health conditions. A flare-up bag is a portable kit filled with personalized essentials, medications, and comfort items designed to help people manage a sudden worsening of chronic illness symptoms while away from home. 

Common Items Packed in a Flare-Up Bag:-

Medications: Personal emergency prescriptions, general pain relief, or nausea treatments.

Hygiene products: Hand sanitizer, wet wipes, and tissues.

Accessibility and communication tools: Grounding cards, earplugs, or a RADAR key for accessible restrooms.

Comfort and sensory items: Fidget tools, hair ties, or zipper 

Hydration and blood pressure support: Electrolyte packets or chewable tablets and a small water bottle.

Temperature aids: Instant hand warmers, ice packs, or cooling strips

For more structured guidance on managing symptoms, you can look into creating a Flare Up Plan Guide to help identify early warning signs and delegate tasks

https://chronicallyjenni.com/flare-up-plan-guide/

I have had to sit down and think about what I would need and require in a flare-up bag of my own by basing it on my own chronic health conditions. Be it at home, in town, on public transport, at a medical appointment, theatre, live music, museums etc a flare up can happen and catch you off guard…..

This is what makes up my personal flare up bag, I am going to add a laminated card with my medical conditions, emergency contact numbers alongside a copy of my DNACPR & DNAR.

Rachel_Scope

Thanks for sharing this @Rag_793. I think it's a wonderful idea and I love the bag 😊 A card with your conditions listed and emergency contacts is a good addition too. I've seen a couple of videos from Chronically Jenni and I really liked her. I edited your post slightly by including the link to Jenni's channel and reduced the size of the pictures so they are more accessible.

I've thought about creating a kit like this for when my chronic pain means I'm stuck in bed. I thought of painkillers as they're a necessity but I also wanted to include some things that made me smile. Being in so much pain can make me feel quite depressed. I love my son's drawings and I thought I would ask him to draw me something that would make me smile. I could add some photos of family and friends and handwritten notes too.

Maybe we should all have a kit like this, both for our physical and mental symptoms. What would everyone put in theirs?