It’s the beginning of another year, and there is no better time to make a new year’s resolution to better yourself, whether it be to lose weight, exercise on a regular basis, or quit smoking. Each January, roughly one in three Americans will resolve to better themselves in some way, but when you are dealing with a complex illness, it can be difficult to create a new year’s resolution. To help you, your friend, or your family member, we have put together 5 new year’s resolutions to stay healthy and commit to your new year’s resolutions in 2016:
- Keep a Medical Calendar: Set aside a special calendar that is used only for tracking medical items. Track symptoms, medication changes,improvements, declines, etc. Tracking these various changes will allow you to see what does and doesn’t work, and to spot patterns in your illness to communicate with your doctor. This can be very useful when dealing with complex illnesses.
- Improve Your Medication Adherence: It is critically important to adhere to your medication. To help you with this, Avella has developed a variety of solutions to address key factors that contribute to non-adherence, along with extensive counseling to patients to identify and overcome any barriers to adherence. In addition, we have designed a mobile app to make it easy to request prescription refills and receive important information and reminders. We’ve found that having your health information at your fingertips and on your mobile device helps you stay on top of your health condition and treatment.
- Stay Connected with Your Doctor: It is important to keep in contact with your healthcare provider. Updating your doctor on your illness and keeping up with your medical appointments will help your doctor provide medications and treatment to best suit your needs. Be sure to bring your medical calendar with you to your appointments so you can update your provider on any changes that are happening with your treatment and condition.
- Improve Your Sleep: Fatigue and pain, often associated with a complex illness, can have a significant effect on your sleep. Sleep deprivation can severely impact your life, so resolve to work on improving your sleep this year. There are several ways that you can work on improving your sleep, such as adhering to a sleep schedule, watching what you eat or drink before you go to bed, and creating a simple bedtime routine. You would be surprised at how much sleep can positively impact your health!
- Reconnect with Friends and Family: Loneliness and isolation are common with a chronic and complex illness. Remember that you need time to be with the people that are important in your life. Your family and friends will help you through the good times and the more challenging times in your treatment.
If you're looking for general information about your complex illness, including education, treatment options and support, we invite you to access our list of patient resources. In addition, if you’re already an Avella patient, download our enhanced mobile app, or login to your patient portal to help you keep all of your doctor and medication information secure and organized online.