The Home Flare Kit: Building a Rescue Station for Bad Days
A home flare kit means fewer decisions on the day you have least energy to make them. What to include, and where to keep it, for chronic illness flare days.
The SpoonieToolkitStudio Blog
Blog — Chronic Illness Tips for POTS, MCAS, hEDS & Dysautonomia
hEDS Triggers: What Actually Sets Off a Hypermobility Flare
hEDS flares rarely come from nowhere. Common triggers, the symptoms to watch for — joint pain, fatigue, brain fog — and what actually helps once one starts.
Dating With a Chronic Illness: When and How to Tell Someone
Agonizing over when to tell a date about your chronic illness? There's no universal right moment — real survey data and language that actually works.
What to Do the Moment a Flare Starts: A Step-by-Step Protocol
A flare is starting — now what? A calm, step-by-step protocol for the first minutes of a chronic illness flare, built to think for you when you can't.
Compression Garments for POTS: How to Choose the Right One
Compression socks not helping your POTS? You might have the wrong mmHg, length, or timing. A practical, research-backed guide to choosing compression that works.
The Medical Tests Behind a POTS, MCAS or hEDS Diagnosis: A Plain-Language Guide
Tilt-table test, tryptase panel, Beighton score — what each test for POTS, MCAS and hEDS actually measures, what to expect, and why diagnosis takes so long.
Low-Histamine Grocery List: A Practical Starting Point for MCAS
Grilled salmon triggering a reaction an hour later? A practical, research-backed low-histamine grocery list and starting guide for MCAS and histamine intolerance.
Parenting With Chronic Illness: Guilt, Energy, and Showing Up Anyway
Can you parent well with chronic illness? Yes — practical, guilt-easing strategies for showing up for your kids with limited energy.
Chronic Illness and Relationships: Staying Close When Your Body Changes the Rules
Chronic illness changes relationships — but not automatically for the worse. Practical ways to protect communication, intimacy and connection with a partner.
Medical Gaslighting: Scripts for When a Doctor Doesn't Believe You
Told your tests are normal but you know something's wrong? Medical gaslighting is real and documented. Scripts and preparation strategies to be taken seriously.
Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM): The Crash After the Crash
Feel fine, then get wiped out a day later? That's post-exertional malaise (PEM) — a real, documented pattern in ME/CFS, post-viral illness and POTS.
Brain Fog and Chronic Illness: Why Your Brain Feels Slow, and What Actually Helps
Brain fog in POTS, MCAS and hEDS is real and measurable. What's behind it, how to find your own triggers, and which coping strategies have evidence behind them.