How to troubleshoot your health problems in 4 easy steps

As someone with chronic lyme disease and now rosacea type 1 and 4, another lifelong illness, I am getting pretty good at trouble-shooting my health problems. When there are different symptoms and solutions person to person you need to take it into your own hands and figure out how to live with it in a way that works for you!

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At least with rosacea there are a lot of good knowledge out there, and I even got a prescribed face gel and pills to help manage it. Chronic lyme disease? I've been on my own since the two weeks of antibiotics I got "just in case" from a very doubting nurse. 

If that's the case, what you have to do is figure it out on your own. It took me a few years, and what I need changes based on what stage I'm in, but by now I pretty much know how to keep myself in remission.

The first two years my cycle was:

• 6 months so sick I couldn't even walk at a normal pace
• 6 months in remission where I was 100% healthy​

And both times I got myself sick again by being horribly sleep deprived, like being jet-lagged by six hours and staying up all night dancing for three days straight during a blues weekend. That was a bad call.

But, through those mistakes I learned that sleep is crucial for me. It's okay to get too little sleep now and then, but never to take it to those extremes. 

I'm sure you have been through similar things -- it's all trial and error. But that's how we figure out how to live and still enjoy life with these illnesses! 

Right now all I have to do to keep myself on the good side of lyme is to do moderate weight lifting sessions four times a week, go on walks, get good sleep, and eat somewhat healthily. The most important part is to not overdo it physically. And if I do get triggered, a few trips to the sauna works like magic! (Wish it hadn't taken me two years to figure that one out!!)

The rosacea on the other hand is new. And unfortunately some things collide with my lyme solutions -- the sauna is a trigger for rosacea. Since the pandemic hit right as I got a diagnosis I haven't been able to figure out if I can find a compromise, but I intend to find out whenever it's safe to go to the gym again! 

But, you're here to find out how to figure out your own protocol. Let's go through the steps! This is what I'm doing with the rosacea.

1. Write down your tools

The first thing you want to do is write down your tools. For me I have things like:

• my medication
• warm eye compress
• journaling (to keep stress down)
• honey/turmeric face mask

And also things that help to cool me down during a flare-up:

• chilled green tea
• rinsing my wrists in cool water
• aloe vera gel

By doing this you get an overview of all the things you can do to make yourself feel better, and also somewhere you can go to make sure you're using everything in your arsenal!

Photo by Reina Lovefull

2. Write down your triggers

Next you write down your triggers. What makes your situation worse? Are there certain foods, certain times of day, certain situations? Some of my triggers are:

• cajun sausage
• sugary alcoholic drinks
• strong feelings like embarrassment and anger
• overheating

Now you know exactly what to avoid/be careful with, and what you need to find solutions for!

3. Make a problem/solution chart

Now you put these two together! For example:​

Trigger: spicy foods
Solutions: limit the hotness, and eat a popsicle afterwards to cool down internally (also doubles as dessert! ;) )

Trigger: sunshine
Solutions: use a parasol or hat, wear a face mask, wear sun screen, keep to the shade

​Trigger: hot showers
Solutions: wash face in cold water afterwards and put cooling aloe vera gel on

This way you can trouble-shoot any of your symptoms! What we want is to make it as easy as possible to live with it. If you know what's wrong, what's triggering your symptoms, you can set out to find solutions for them. Maybe you need to avoid some things completely, or maybe you can get by with just limiting your exposure or modifying what you're doing. ​

4. Keep a log to track your symptoms

This is not something you have to keep up with forever, but just like tracking calories to lose weight it can be really helpful to start with. I made a Rosacea Log in my bullet journal with three different colors:

• Light blue -- no symptoms
• Orange -- light symptoms
• Red -- proper flare-up

I've kept this for two weeks so far, and it's been really helpful! By writing down the triggering event next to it I can see that I got flare-ups from:

• sitting outside reading on the deck for too long
• stress/anxiety before therapy
• too much cheese 

And I can also see that I had a three-day streak with no flare-ups at all. It has definitely gone better overall since I started making making healthy smoothies with fruit and berries in the morning and taking a turmeric-lemon-ginger health shot when I make up. Along with my face-care routine I'm creating a good base to work from, which might help prevent quick reactions. 

​Knowledge is your friend, so find out everything you can! It is so easy to just feel hopeless and defeated, but even if your life has to change you can still be in charge of it! ​

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Related articles:

• 15 simple ways to relax at bedtime
• 8 easy & practical ways to drink more water
• Free printable -- body-weight workout routine for beginners

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