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in Health, Lifestyle · November 30, 2018

Holiday Gift Guide: Gifts for Chronic Illness Patients

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

With Hanukkah starting early next week and Christmas only a few weeks away, we’re officially in the thick of the holiday season. If you’re shopping for someone who has a chronic illness or condition, they might have some special gifts on their list that you wouldn’t think about. Never fear, the resident chronic illness patient is here! These gifts include those that can help patients, entertain/distract them, and more.

Before we get into it, I want to speak about Ebates for a second, per usual. Ebates is a way for you to earn cash back every time you shop online. It’s a browser extension, and once it’s installed, when you go to a retailer’s website, you’ll get a pop-up if there’s cash back. 4 times a year, they’ll send you your money! Sign up here.

All Gift Guides

With how many chronically ill people there are in the world, chances are you're shopping for one. This chronic illness patient shares what she suggests you buy the chronic illness or chronic pain patient on your list.

Gifts for Chronic Illness Patients: Tools

These are gifts that are helpful and can/will improve the patient’s life. They might not have these things or they might want better quality ones. Either way, these are things that people will use.

chronic illness, chronic pain, rheumatoid arthritis, RA, rheum, arthritis, osteoarthritis, fibro, fibromyalgia, endo, endometriosis, POTS, postular orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, dysautonomia, chronic anemia, anemia

CMFRT Weighted Blanket ($75-125 depending how much weight) | Not pictured: Sharper Image® Calming Comfort 10 lb. Weighted Blanket ($100) | AUVON iMedassist Portable Daily Pill Organizer ($10) | Conair Moist Heating Pad ($25) | CryoMax Reusable 8 Hour Medium Cold Pack ($15)
| INVODA Pill Box ($9) | Sunbeam Electric Heating Pad ($20) | TheraPearl Hot or Cold Sports Pack ($9) | XINHOME Pill Organizer Box Weekly Case ($15)

Not pictured: 35° Below® Large Warming Socks in Black ($15), Heated Electric Warm Thermal Socks,Winter Rechargeable Electric Warm Heated Socks ($23), and Electric Gloves with 3.7V Rechargeable Battery Thermal Heated Gloves ($50).

Gifts for Chronic Illness Patients: Fun/Distraction

These are things that can occupy them when they’re not doing well, waiting for a medical appointment, etc.

coloring, coloring for calmness, gift for chronic illness patients, gifts for chronic pain patients

The Calm Coloring Book ($8) | Crayola Brush Markers, Dual-Tip with Ultra Fine Marker ($10) | Prismacolor® Premier® Colored Pencils ($18) | Vogue Colors A to Z: A Fashion Coloring Book ($12)

Not pictured: regular books (check out my tag of book posts) and tablets. Some tablet options are Amazon Fire HD 10 Tablet with Alexa Hands-Free ($150), Samsung Galaxy Tab E Lite 7″ 8GB Tablet ($70), and Apple iPad mini 4 ($378-400).

Gifts for Chronic Illness Patients: Gift Cards

Everyone loves gift cards! Some ideas are subscriptions (Hulu, Netflix, or Audible, for example), as well as things a bit more specific to chronic illness like massage or acupuncture.

If you have a chronic illness, what gifts do you want that I haven’t put on this list?

Like this post? Check out:

All gift guides, Caring for Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients, Chronic Illness and Mental Health, Is Chronic Illness a Disability?, Chronically Ill Tips: Preparing for Medical Appointments + Freebies To Help

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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  1. Holiday Gift Ideas: Best Gifts for Someone with Chronic Pain & Illness says:
    November 6, 2022 at 12:56 pm

    […] 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 […]

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  2. Gift Guide: Gifts for Chronically Ill People | Kate the (Almost) Great says:
    November 6, 2022 at 1:02 pm

    […] 2018 gift guide for chronic illness patients […]

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  3. Gift Ideas: Chronic Illness Must-Haves says:
    August 16, 2023 at 7:57 pm

    […] for Someone with Chronic Pain & Illness (2021), Gift Ideas for Chronically Ill People (2019), Gifts for Chronic Illness Patients (2018), Chronic Illness Gifts […]

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  4. Gifts Supporting Good Causes | Health Lifestyle Blog says:
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  5. Gift Ideas: Gifts That Give Back - Kate the (Almost) Great says:
    September 2, 2024 at 3:03 pm

    […] Ideas for Chronically Ill People, Great Gifts for Mom, Gifts for Chronic Illness Patients, Most Useful […]

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Drop your suggestions in the comments _______ Drop your suggestions in the comments 

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“Sorry, my mom said I can’t do that”

“Didn’t you hear? The new pope said that was heresy.” (Ideal if you’re not Catholic)

“I have to wait until mercury isn’t in retrograde, and it’s always in retrograde”

“My psychic said that will kill me”

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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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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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#AlmostGreatHealth #rheumatoidarthritis #arthritis #spoonielife #healthblogger #autoimmune #autoimmunedisease #chronicallyill #healthblog #dysautonomia #fibro #fibromyalgia #endo #chronicallyill #disability #disabled #invisibleillness #spoonielife #healthblogger
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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This is my Wonderful Things jar. Every day, I write down something wonderful or good that happened that day. ⁣
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I know it looks like I'm forcing Harley to sit like this, but he was making this face before I put my arm around him. Dog snuggle time is the best!⁣
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I got a Kindle this year and it has been amazing. It's so much easier on my body than lugging around books and it makes borrowing from the library a lot easier.⁣
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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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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 has her face in a golden retriever who is slumped onto her. They're in a teal room with a red rug. Kate is a brunette white woman wearing red pants and a gray sweater.⁣
3️⃣ A Kindle on dark mode in Kate's lap⁣
4️⃣ 3 open pill cases on a yellow bedspread ⁣
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#AlmostGreatHealth #AlmostGreatLife #SelfCare #ChronicallyIll #ChronicallyAwesome #SpoonieLife #Spoonie #ChronicLife #ButYouDontLookSick #InvisibleIllness #MentalHealthMatters #RetrieversOfInstagram #Readers #Kindle #WonderfulThings #GratitudePractice
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. 

#AlmostGreatHealth #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #RheumatoidArthritis #SjogrensSyndrome #Fibromyalgia #Endometriosis
💃🏼 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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1️⃣ Kate stands hugging Emmie. They're both white woman. Emmie is in a wedding dress and Kate is in a red dress and wearing round tortiseshell glasses.⁣
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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. ⁣
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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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⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣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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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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ID: Kate takes a mirror selfie. She's a brunette white woman wearing a hospital gown, scrub bottoms, black mask, round tortoiseshell glasses, and round tortoiseshell glasses. ⁣
🌸 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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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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3️⃣ A picture of the New York City skyline behind a bridge.⁣
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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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ID: Kate poses for the camera holding a mug with the letter M on it. Kate is a brunette white woman wearing a blue sweater and round tortoiseshell glasses. A white text box reads "If I met my newly diagnosed self for coffee ...". ⁣
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#AlmostGreatHealth #RheumatoidArthritis #RheumatoidDisease #ChronicallyIll #Autoimmune #AutoimmuneDisease #AutoimmuneArthritis #Rheum #InvisibleIllness #Arthritis #ButYouDontLookSick #ArthritisWarrior #CureArthritis
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