Fibromyalgia Experiences

Have a calendar hung or placed where you will see it every single day. Write all the important stuff on it. Appointments, when & where you're supposed to meet friends, whatever you feel is important. Personally, I even put down reminders for important but can-be-forgotten things like paying rent. I also include important dates on the calendar, like birthdays and anniversaries.

Have several different post-its or other memo pads. You can keep one by the phone, another by your computer, another stuck to your fridge, and others wherever you might need them. I use the one by the phone to write important phone-related information on. I use the one by the computer to write reminders, and then I stick them to my computer (sometimes with tape to make sure they don't fall off accidentally) to remind me of important things. I have a post-it pad stuck to my fridge and a marker on top of the fridge (well, I do have a short fridge), and I use that post-it to write down everything I need to buy. I've found that having it right in the kitchen, where the most amount of stuff I need to replenish the most often is, tends to cut down on me forgetting things by having to go search for a memo pad and then losing track of what I was going to write down in the first place. I also find that having one memo pad to write down everything that I need to buy helps me in keeping organized and in only having one sheet to grab if I'm going to do several errands at once.

Devise little memory tricks to remind you whether you've done something. For example, I keep my vitamins lined up right behind my bathroom sink so that I'll see them at least a few times a day. I take them at two different times. It's more likely for me to forget to take the second batch than the first, so I devised a plan: When I've yet to take the second one that day, I keep it pushed away from the other vitamins. After I've taken it, I push it in next to the other vitamins, so that I won't accidentally take too many. And in the morning, when I take the first batch, I push it back away from them so that I'll know I haven't taken it yet that day. At first sometimes I would forget to do this, but it soon became so habitual that I now often do it without even consciously thinking about it. This can be done with other things using little memory tricks as well.

Even more helpful for many people medicinally-wise is to simply get a day-by-day pill holder. Some have one slot for each day of the week and some are larger and have ones for the different times of day. These holders are handy for people that have a lot of meds to take and/or that easily forget whether they've taken their meds that day. Personally, I find them especially valuable on trips; that way, I don't have to take whole bottles of every vitamin and med I take along, plus I forget things even more easily on trips, and that way I don't have to keep track of whether I've taken stuff yet that day -- the pill holder does it for me. :) Pill holders are also quite cheap; I got mine for free at my local pharmacy.

Especially important to those of us with chronic illnesses, I have a journal with all the pertinent medical stuff I can think of in it, from childhood immunizations through to the names and addresses of recent doctors I've seen, with the dates I saw them. I also keep track of my medications and supplements in it, including when I started and ended them and what, if any, positive changes and negative side effects they appeared to cause. I include a list of medications that I'm allergic to. Having this journal makes it so much simpler to fill out medical forms and to keep track of everything.

Also keep themed folders of stuff. I have a folder full of the random papers, pamphlets, and booklets I've grabbed or been given about fibro, CFIDS, & related stuff. This makes it so much easier to find it all when I need it. If I've told someone I have these illnesses and they want to know a lot more, it's also easy just to grab a pamphlet or something and say, "Well, if you want, you can start by reading this." Similarly, I keep all my medical- and health-related books in the same part of one bookcase so that they're easy to locate.

...I will add to this page as I remember more of my memory tricks. ;-)

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