What Am I Doing Here?

Life in Cutlery is my attempt at a daily journal, using a combination of spoon theory and fork theory.

My combination of the 2 is each fork is a extra negative spoon; though for the purposes of this, I'll only use forks I can't get rid of easily--so unlike the above article I'm not counting going to the bathroom, for example.

I give myself a baseline of 20 spoons per day since my issues are draining but not as serious as many others.  Then I'm using this as my baseline for the number of spoons each thing takes, although if something uses less of my energy I'll count it differently (for example, surfing the internet is listed as 2 spoons but I'll count it as 1 as it's my "active rest").  I'm counting meals and coffee each as an extra positive spoon, since they temporarily raise my energy.  Last, if I use more than 20 spoons in a day, I'll subtract the extra used spoons from the next day.  If I use fewer than 20 spoons in a day, although this is not usual or likely, I will add those extra unused spoons to the next day.

So each day I'm going to write about how many spoons I start with and how many I use and how I use them.  Most of my spoons go toward really boring things but that's okay.

What makes me have to count spoons?

The most spoon-draining thing I deal with is suspected hypothyroidism.  This is, for me, the biggest reason I have a limited number of spoons per day.  I have literally hundreds of symptoms, including lack of energy to start with and becoming tired more easily than most (let me know if you ever want to see the list), but because my TSH is right on the borderline of too high (has to be significantly above 5 to be diagnosed, and it fluctuates between 4.95 and 5.01), I have yet to be diagnosed and treated.  If this changes, I may get some more spoons.  :)

Low blood pressure:  This is one of the symptoms, but this I have been diagnosed with.  It leads to dizziness and a lack of energy.  And of course, it is a self-propagating cycle--the lower in spoons I already am, the more dizzy I get and the less energy I have so the lower in spoons I get, so...

Next, although it pales in comparison, I deal with ulnar neuropathy.  This doesn't drain as many spoons, but when it acts up, it does add a fork (or sometimes more than 1) that other people don't have added.

I also deal with food allergies to wheat and corn, 2 very difficult things to avoid.  If I get "glutened" or "corned" or both, there's another fork (or more realistically a whole bunch of forks) for either the same day or the next day or both.

I have some, thankfully minor because mostly resolved, trauma stuff.  Without going too much into detail, it affects my spoons/forks mostly, for example, if I cough or have a sore throat.

Last, it's completely undiagnosed and pure speculation, but there is a lot of overlap between many of the symptoms of hypothyroidism I experience and symptoms of autism.  So that's a possibility.

I'm starting with April 1 because it's the beginning of the month but also because it's a Monday, which is when I usually start up with using up spoons for the week, after resting on Sunday.

So, let's go!