My 2 favourite hypermobility/PoTS hacks:

There are loads of tips and tricks for living with disability that only come with lived experience - sometimes our own experience, and sometimes others who've lived with similar conditions or symptoms and discovered things that work for them - which turn out to work for us too.

Anyways, this isn't a long blog. It's just two that I currently love. One newly discovered, and one newly remembered.

1. ARM WARMERS.
Picture: Hannah wearing a white T-shirt with small flowers on,
and hot pink arm warmers. And a smile.
As someone who loves soft warmth but is also heat intolerant due to PoTS, it makes the cooler weather somewhat tricky to cope with. Until: Arm warmers. They mean I can keep my arms snug without my torso overheating. And if it's a bit more chilly, a light scarf plus arm warmers is heaven. And I'd recommend looking on Etsy for arm warmers in your size - I found lots of nice ones on there last autumn - which have been brought back into use thanks to a fellow POTSy facebooker reminding me how awesome they are.

I have proper chunky knitted ones, and soft, thinner jersey ones. And all of them are long- otherwise my elbows get chilly. I usually wear black ones, I want a pair of blue ones, but hot pink have their place too!

2. Floor-based ironing.

Image: ironing board lying on the floor, with a shirt and an iron on,
and the knee and foot of someone sitting on the floor, using it.
Clearly this won't work for everyone, but it was a real light bulb moment for me. I have tried ironing standing up. Burns. Sitting down means board at wrong height. More burns. I literally hadn't done any for months. (except before my brothers wedding when I burnt my arm). Anyway, I was on holiday and having a wobbly legs day but wanted to wear a shirt that had got crinkled. And the ironing board was on the floor - so I plugged the iron in and found myself in a half crouch half kneel at the still folded ironing board - and it really worked! My body likes sitting on the floor and I could adjust my position easily and securely without needing much balance, and with minimal POTS aggravation!

So there you have it: Wearing arm warmers and crouching on the floor to do the ironing are my current favourite hacks.

Comments

  1. Ooh Arm warmers, what a great idea!

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  2. Irons are useful for various embroidery/craft applications. I have a small/light travel iron and a mini portable board like yours that lives in my studio. I have no intention of ever ironing actual clothes. Life is too short.

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