I have spent the last few years dealing with chronic illness and my life has changed almost beyond recognition. I have started this blog to help make some sense of what has happened and where I am now, to try and move beyond survival mode and try to figure out a way to thrive, within…
How I was vs who I am
Coming up to my most hated anniversary, the start of an illness that turned into ME/CFS (maybe I should start an anniversary gift system to help lighten the blow?? Year four could be cashmere…), I came upon an article in the Guardian that really spoke to me – An ill day can still be a…
Acceptance? Or keep looking for answers…
In my first few months of illness I had every test and investigation possible, trying to get to the bottom of this debilitating condition that appeared out of nowhere and never left. I saw doctors at my GPs, at urgent care, at A&E, via private referrals. I was poked, prodded, scanned and tested and for…
Long Covid – could we finally start to understand what causes ME?
A few months into the pandemic, trickles of reports started to surface about people who has been ill with Covid-19 and not quite recovered. These people often had a mild form of the illness and hadn’t required hospitalization but weeks and months later, they were still experiencing a multitude of symptoms that had no simple…
Botox: round two – hospitals and COVID
I posted back in March that I had finally been offered botox as a treatment for my chronic intractable migraine, after trying about a gazillion other medications. The usual protocol is to repeat the treatment every three months and it is usually only after the second or third treatment that a significant impact is seen…
Balancing family, work and health in this ‘new normal’
Before the world went into lockdown and working from home became the norm (for those of us who can), I used to WFH 2-3 days a week in order to help manage my fatigue/migraines. This combination of office and home worked well – lots of meetings and face to face conversations when in the office,…
ME Awareness Day 2020
As it is ME Awareness Day, a fact which had pretty much passed me by since, ironically, I am currently in the middle of a fatigue ‘crash’, I thought I would do a quick post about this crappy illness. ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), more commonly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), affects millions of people around…
Social distancing: day 29 (where we have thrown a house move into the mix)
I have written before about the nightmare we have had trying to move house. To summarise, over the course of three years we had three sales fall through (including one the day before exchange) and two purchases lost. Finally, fourth time lucky, all was going well and exchange was imminent, just when the Covid-19 crisis…
Social distancing: day seven (where we start home schooling whilst still working full time)
After a pretty pleasant weekend where we felt none of the usual pressure to ‘get out and do something’ today was the start of our new routine. Garry and I spent a bit of time yesterday cross referencing calendars, making sure we had time blocked out for teleconferences or essential work then checked the google…
Social distancing: day four (where alcohol is bloody helping)
Things are still pretty…abnormal. In the past few days we have gone from being advised to work from home if possible, to being told all schools are closing, to all social areas like pubs, restaurants, gyms etc. being told to close, effective immediately. I’m not completely sure if these more extreme measures were all part…
Social distancing: day two (well this is harder than expected 🤷♂️)
Working from home? No problem, I do that all the time! Keep away from other people? Yep, don’t get out much anyway. Work from home whilst all the IT systems are imploding, your team need supporting in the transition and you spend upwards of 5 hours a day on the phone, your 3 year old…