People who are suffering from chronic conditions generally felt neglected by the healthcare system that’s supposed to look after them, which is somewhat a delicate matter given that most healthcare facilities were overwhelmed by the sheer number of COVID-19 patients that they admit each day.
Many others who have similar health problems, meanwhile, were extremely fearful of their susceptibility to COVID-19. This is due to the acknowledged fact that people with existing medical conditions that weaken their immune systems are highly at risk of dying from the viral illness.
If you’re somewhat at a loss as to how you could manage your chronic pain while staying relatively safe from COVID-19 risks, here are five techniques you should explore:
Seek professional advice remotely
The COVID-19 pandemic made it almost imperative for healthcare professionals to offer remote consultations and diagnosis of their patients, a trend called telehealth or telemedicine. This type of approach uses communications technology such as Zoom, Skype, and Google Meet, among others. It allows doctors to remotely check up on their patients, issue reminders, and provide medication prescriptions for medicine refills.
You can avail of such benefits by simply contacting a local clinic that offers telehealth pain management services at a reasonable rate. This way, you can get the services normally discharged at a physical clinic, but without going out of your home and exposing yourself to potential COVID-19 transmission.
Do meditation and relaxation exercises daily
If you want an approach that won’t require you to spend too much money and leave your home, you should explore basic relaxation and meditation techniques such as breathing exercises and yoga.
There are plenty of YouTube tutorials that you can watch and repeat after to help lessen the pain that you’re experiencing. This approach would only need a good wifi connection and a quiet place, so it’s truly an excellent method for those on a budget.
Do some simple home improvements
If you want to keep your muscles active, your blood circulation excellent, and your pain eased considerably, you need to be physically active other than doing relaxation exercises. Instead, you should take on some home improvement projects that would take your mind away from stress while working up your body and making productive use of your time.
Among the best DIY improvements you can do include turning a spare room into an entertainment area or home office and study area for your kids, general house cleaning, and vegetable gardening. You can consider other home improvement ideas but the bottom line is the same: to keep the muscles active and your mind occupied productively.
Explore the magic of aromatherapy
For thousands of years, civilizations have been benefiting from the therapeutic benefits of inhaling essential oils derived mainly from plant extracts known for their relaxing scents. This ancient practice is called aromatherapy and it’s pretty much in vogue until today.
These days, you can all sorts of essential oils being mass-produced and sold commercially on the internet, so getting your hands on your preferred scents shouldn’t be a problem. Among the most common scents that people buy are lavender, chamomile, lemon, bergamot, and cedarwood.
The aroma from the essential oils is said to activate certain parts of the brain such as the hypothalamus, which is instrumental in producing serotonin, the feel-good chemical. Another brain area that is believed to be directly activated by pleasant scents is the limbic system, which is responsible for triggering human emotions.
As such, be sure to invest in some essential oils and diffusers such as reed and dehumidifier. They cost relatively cheap and easily accessible, so getting them should be an easy task.
Be careful with what you eat
Your diet has a huge part to part in helping you manage your chronic pain condition easily. This is because certain food can trigger the specific pain condition that you’re experiencing, so you should discipline yourself into staying away from them or eating them in moderation.
If you have the money for it, you should consider asking for a custom meal plan from the registered nutritionist-dietitian, so you can have a diet that won’t unduly cause your pain to shoot up. This would, of course, cost you money but the pain relief you’ll get from it will be worth it.
There is no denying just how hard it is to manage chronic pain conditions in such a volatile situation. However, you can succeed in doing so by heeding these simple techniques, which have been proven effective by many people with a similar condition.
