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Text reads: Holiday gift ideas, chronic illness patients (end text). This post has the best gifts for someone with chronic pain or a chronic illness. I’m serious! Read on to see these 58 chronic illness gifts.
in Health, Lifestyle · December 3, 2021

Holiday Gift Ideas: Best Gifts for Someone with Chronic Pain & Illness

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in Health, Lifestyle · December 3, 2021

Holiday Gift Ideas: Best Gifts for Someone with Chronic Pain & Illness

Hoo boy! I have made a bunch of gift guides for chronic illness patients over the years (2019, 2018, 2017, and in 2014), but I think this is the best one I’ve made yet. It definitely has the most gifts I’ve ever included in a chronic illness gift guide! All of this is to say that this post has the best gifts for someone with chronic pain or a chronic illness. I’m serious! 

I know this post will help you find the right gift, but you better hurry – Hanukkah is almost over, Christmas Eve is 3 weeks away, and Kwanzaa is 3 weeks and 2 days away. Get shopping!

This post contains affiliate links and sponsored content. Thank you for supporting Kate the (Almost) Great! 

All 2021 Gift Guides | All Gift Guides

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Text reads: Holiday gift ideas, chronic illness patients (end text). This post has the best gifts for someone with chronic pain or a chronic illness. I’m serious! Read on to see these 58 chronic illness gifts.

This post has a lot of gifts in it. Like, a lot. I want to give you a heads up that we’re starting with the big ticket gifts, then going to useful gifts, and then fun gifts. So don’t be discouraged by more expensive gifts that we’re starting with!

Contents hide
Best Gifts for Someone with Chronic Pain & Illness: Big Ticket Gifts
Best Gifts for Someone with Chronic Pain & Illness: Useful Gifts
Best Gifts for Someone with Chronic Pain & Illness: Fun Gifts

Best Gifts for Someone with Chronic Pain & Illness: Big Ticket Gifts

Dartwood Deep Tissue Massage Gun – Are you shopping for someone who lives with muscle pain? Someone who might wish they could go get massages regularly? Get them this! This massage gun has 30 multi-speed settings and 6 specialty massage heads. It looks freaking awesome. 

HidrateSpark 21oz Vacuum Insulated Stainless Steel Water Bottle – This water bottle keeps drinks cold for up to 24 hours, and it also has LED smart sensor puck that will glow to remind you to drink, and more. 

Fitbit Charge 5 – Fitbit describes this as “most advanced fitness & health tracker with tools like an on-wrist ECG app for heart health, EDA Scan app for stress management and more” (x).

Fitbit Luxe – This is more of a jewelry design (hence the name) and it includes heart rate tracking, stress management, and more. 

Fitbit Inspire – This is what I have! I love it and wear it every single day. The most important thing to me is that it tracks your heart rate, which it does beautifully.

Garmin vívosmart® 4 – This is a wearable tracker that has “advanced sleep monitoring with REM sleep and can gauge blood oxygen saturation levels during the night with the wrist-based Pulse Ox² sensor,” as well as “wrist-based heart rate, all-day stress tracking, relaxation breathing timer, VO2 max, Body Battery™ energy monitor and more” (x).

Apple Watch – Be a REAL big deal and get them an Apple Watch! In addition to all the Apple things that it has, it also is “the most advanced Apple Watch health and wellness features yet, including the Blood Oxygen app and the ECG” (x).

Living Life with Chronic Illness: Common Problems & Their Solutions

Text reads: Best gifts for someone with chronic pain, useful gifts (end text). best gifts for someone with chronic pain, holiday gift ideas, ideas for holiday gifts, chronic illness gifts, chronic illness gift guide

Best Gifts for Someone with Chronic Pain & Illness: Useful Gifts

This is a collection of somewhat random gifts that are great for people with chronic illness and will be useful gifts. 

Olive and June 

I personally love having painted nails. They make me feel more put together and kind of like I can take on the world. But I have rheumatoid arthritis in my fingers, which makes painting my nails a bit more difficult. And even before the pandemic, I prefer to paint my nails than pay for someone to paint them. (I never get a professional manicure unless I have an event.)

Olive and June makes painting my own nails and having a salon-level manicure at home so much easier. I got the O&J Mani System for my birthday this past year and I absolutely love it. 

But the thing that makes O&J so great for chronic illness patients is their product called the Poppy. This “patented universal polish bottle handle” (x) makes it way easier to paint your nails and have it look nice. And it doesn’t just work for O&J nail polish bottles! It works with most nail polish bottles. 

Olive & June has other great systems such as The Press-On System, The Pedi System, The Complete System (which has everything in the Polish Mani System and the Pedi System), The Mani Weekender, and The Mani Jetsetter. 

Olive & June is an awesome company that makes a lot of cool things, and they make great gifts for everyone. But if you always feel crappy, having nice nails is a big boost. You’re not just giving someone an at-home manicure set – you’re giving them the power to feel good about themselves. 

Hoka One One Sneakers

I have very bad feet. I have rheumatoid arthritis and tarsal coalitions in both feet, and I have had 5 foot/ankle surgeries. I also have extremely flat feet. All of this means that I basically only wear sneakers, and the only sneakers I wear are Hokas.

Hoka One One was suggested to me by my foot surgeon, and I haven’t looked back. I have 2 pairs of sneakers at any given time: 1 for outdoors and 1 for indoors. When the outdoor pair gets worn out, the indoor pair becomes the outdoor pain and I order a new pair for the indoors. 

I have probably gone through 7 or 8 pairs of Hokas, no joke. I absolutely love them. Here are some popular women’s sneakers: 

Clifton 8 – These sneakers provide a neutral level of stability and have a balanced cushion. 

Bondi 8 – These sneakers are “the most cushioned shoe in the HOKA road-shoe lineup”. They provide a neutral level of stability and plush cushion. 

Rincon 3 – These sneakers are designed for running! They provide neutral stability and have a balanced cushion. 

Zinal – These sneakers were designed for trail running (very different from running on asphalt). They have neutral stability and a responsive cushion. 

Gaviota 4 – Finally, these are my favorite sneakers. They have the highest level of stability possible – necessary for my messed up feet – and balanced cushion. They feel great to walk on and I love them so much. 

Hoka One One makes incredible sneakers, which are great gifts for all sorts of people in your life, but they also make other awesome gifts. Check them all out here. 

Now that I’ve shared some miscellaneous useful gifts, I want to highlight Mighty Well, one of my favorite companies. They are where I got the only masks I wear (that aren’t disposable) as well as my mask holder. They have some incredible products, and the company itself was made by a chronic illness patient. 

If you buy anything from Mighty Well, use my code “KATEM10” for 10% off! I love Mighty Well and have bought a bunch of stuff from them, which is why I’m a Mighty Well Ambassador. 

Mighty Pack – This is “​​the perfect versatile solution for patients looking for an IV infusion backpack that can hold everything you need” (x).

Brain Fog Fix Planner – This planner “includes space to track daily symptoms, hydration, thoughts and moments of gratitude amidst the daily challenges” (x).

Mighty MedPlanner – This is a chronic illness patient’s new best friend! It “organizes all your medical supplies in a neat and discreet way” (x).

Cocoon Cardigan – This cozy cardigan is also super functional! It can discreetly hold medical supplies, the style of it enables easy run of IV meds, and has cuffed wide sleeves for easy movement and access to whatever is necessary. 

IMMUNO Full Zip – Give this to someone who needs to tell other people to BACK UP! 

IMMUNO Compromised Tee – This is a bit more subtle, but still perfect for someone with a suppressed immune system.

Mighty Pack Care Kit – This kit includes the Mighty Pack (linked above), an UNDEFEATED t-shirt, and immunocompromised stickers. 

I also want to talk about Vitassium.

Do you know someone who lives with a chronic illness like POTS? You should give them Vitassium products! Vitassium is a great way to get electrolytes, which can help with symptoms like lightheadedness and fatigue. It comes in Electrolyte Capsules, FastChews, and DrinkMix. Give the gift of feeling better this season.

9 Arthritis Products That Help My Rheumatoid Arthritis

Text reads: Fun gifts to give someone with a chronic illness (end text). best gifts for someone with chronic pain, holiday gift ideas, ideas for holiday gifts, chronic illness gifts, chronic illness gift guide

Best Gifts for Someone with Chronic Pain & Illness: Fun Gifts

You can probably figure out what’s in this section based on the title, but this is all fun gifts! From stickers to t-shirts, from mugs to keychains, these are all miscellaneous fun things.

Chronic Illness Stickers for Laptop: “My Illness Is Chronic But My Ass Is Iconic” 

Chronic Illness Survival Kit Pouch – This pouch says “Chronic Illness Survival Kit” on it; the survival kit is all on the patient. You could give them this pouch as is or you could fill this with fun things like candy, pins, stickers, and more. 

Disability and Chronic Illness Vinyl Sticker Pack

Floral Spoonie Shirt

Gift Boxes by CandleTherapy – This comes in self-care, chill, meditation, relief, or build your own.

No More Spoons Only Knives Left Shirt 

Liquid Spoons Chronic Illness Mug

Chronically Empowered Published Book – This book is about “Over 60 exceptional, worldwide Chronic Illness Warriors describe how they embrace their chronic illnesses while providing educational information about them along the way” (x).

Chronically Iconic T-shirt

Rainbow Spoonie Sweatshirt

Medical Unicorn Shirt

Chronically Badass Mug

Accessibility Is Not Optional Unisex Sweatshirt

Affirmation Cards For Spoonies

It’s Not Lazy, It’s Chronic T-Shirt

Spoonie Shirt

Disabled NOT Disposable

Invisible Illness Club T-Shirt

Some Days are harder than others… enamel pin

Strong AF Enamel Pin

Chronic Badass Enamel Keyring

Some Disabilities are Invisible Enamel Keyring

Happy shopping!

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Like this post? Check out: 

Living with a Suppressed Immune System in a Pandemic, Chronic Illness and the Holidays: 10 Rules for a Great Season, Chronic Illness Advice: Resources for the Newly-Diagnosed Patient  

Kate Mitchell

Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Shea says

    December 6, 2021 at 8:36 am

    Great gifts! Thank you for sharing. My husband has chronic pain so this is great

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  2. Shell-Shell's🐚tipsandtricks says

    December 7, 2021 at 1:23 am

    My Mom has arthritis and possibly lupus. Thanks for sharing!!
    ~Michelle
    https://michellescrazybusylife.net

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Having decades-long health problems sometimes mean Having decades-long health problems sometimes means coming across something in your health history that you completely forgot about⁣
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Here are some ways I practice self care, aka talki Here are some ways I practice self care, aka talking care of myself AND who I am as a person separate from illness⁣
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Yes, I share this all the time, but filling my pill boxes every 3 weeks make it so I stick with all of my medications. But the self-care part of this is that I don't have to take the time to refill a box every single week.⁣
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4️⃣ 3 open pill cases on a yellow bedspread ⁣
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What I Bring To the Doctor _______ Video: a pa What I Bring To the Doctor 

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Video: a pan of an exam room. White text reads “What I Bring To the Doctor ” and the “1. Planner/notebook
2. List of current medications 
3. Notes on my biggest concerns and questions 
4. My kindle for wait time” 
The intro to Maroon 5’s Priceless plays. 

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💃🏼 Week 17 of #2025Weekly 💃🏼⁣
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1️⃣ She’s married!! ⁣
2️⃣ She married the best person in the world for her!!!!!⁣
3️⃣ I got dressed up! ⁣
4️⃣ The reality of doing fun things with chronic illness and pain is that then you have to recover from the fun things. It took … a while. One million percent worth it, but this is why I don’t do big events on a regular basis. ⁣
5️⃣ And then I had to be a person again for an appointment!⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 7+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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2️⃣ Kate and Emmie stand next to Matt, Emmie's husband. He is a white man.⁣
3️⃣ Kate takes a mirror selfie. she's in the same red dress but now also wears a jean jacket and holds a cane and mask.⁣
4️⃣ Kate takes a selfie while giving a thumbs up. She looks tired. She's now wearing a pink flowery dress. ⁣
5️⃣ Kate takes a mirror selfie. She's wearing black shorts, a gray shirt, a jean jacket, a blue mask, and black aviator sunglasses. She has a bag over her shoulder and holds a cane.⁣
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On the one hand, you should always believe what pe On the one hand, you should always believe what people tell you about their bodies.⁣
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On the other hand, I’ve had so much ridiculous and unconnected health things happen that I do understand why people might not believe me.⁣
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Last week, I talked about how it surprised me how Last week, I talked about how it surprised me how systemic autoimmune arthritis can be. But something else that surprised me was how much pain can be caused by small things.⁣
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In this picture, I was getting ready to have an MRI on my knee. It has been bothering me a fair amount the last 6+ months, so I'm trying to do something about that. ⁣
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Unsurprisingly, some of the tissue is damaged, but it's not bad. What's probably causing it to bother me so much is a teeny tiny cyst. ⁣
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Baker's cysts are a type of cyst in the knee that are generally caused by arthritis. But having a cyst in my knee means that it's causing pressure on that damaged tissue. ⁣
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The body is a weird thing, and one of these weird things is developing tiny cysts that cause a lot of pain. ⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 7+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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🌸 Week 16 of #2025Weekly 🌸 ⁣ ⁣ 1️⃣ S 🌸 Week 16 of #2025Weekly 🌸 ⁣
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1️⃣ Spring has sprung … ⁣
2️⃣ … Which means I am overheating! ⁣
3️⃣ A quick view of NYC on my travels ⁣
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If I met my newly diagnosed self for coffee ... ⁣
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I tell her how things would get worse before they got better. ⁣
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I'd tell her to stop eating gluten, dairy, corn, soy, and eggs immediately (although that would have been a lot harder in 2010, more than it even is now). ⁣
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I'd tell her that she still needs to keep advocating for herself. ⁣
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I'd tell her that having a diagnosis unfortunately doesn't mean everything automatically falls into place. ⁣
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I'd tell her that she'll develop many more illnesses but her quality of life will actually get significantly better. ⁣
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I'd tell her that she would eventually have to get her right foot fixed, although she does expect that.⁣
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I'd tell her that using a cane is not a sign of failure, but a tool to make life better.⁣
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(I did a sort of tongue-in-cheek post about this a while ago and thought I'd post a more serious one).⁣
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⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate. Follow me for more content for chronic illness patients and their loved ones!⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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The thing that surprised me the most about autoimm The thing that surprised me the most about autoimmune arthritis is how systemic it is. ⁣
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Like with most things, it's one thing to know the fact and it's something else to experience it. ⁣
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Yes, my joints are affected (a lot). ⁣
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But I've had enough serious infections thats I have to see an immunologist because we need to be aware of my antibodies and I sometimes need help recovering from illnesses. ⁣
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And, yes, I see pulmonology because of my asthma, but we also have to keep an eye out on developing rheumatoid nodules in my lungs. (So far so good!)⁣
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Not to mention that, when I developed POTS, the hospital admitted me to run every heart test to make sure that, at 26, I wasn't experiencing heart failure. ⁣
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Plus, when I developed endometriosis, I also went through a number of GI tests because one theory was that I had ulcerative colitis. ⁣
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Anyway, RA is so much more than "just" joints. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have to kill my immune system every 3 months like I am in this picture.⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 7+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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ID: Kate takes a selfie in an infusion chair. She is a brunette white woman wearing a Boston Red Sox shirt, blue mask, and round tortoiseshell glasses.⁣⁣
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#AlmostGreatHealth #RheumatoidArthritis #RheumatoidDisease #Rheum #Autoimmune #AutoimmuneDisease #InvisibleIllness #ButYouDontLookSick #Sjogrens #SjogrensSyndrome #POTS #PosturalOrthostaticTachycardiaSyndrome #Dysautonomia
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