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Who am I?

Hey there, welcome to my blog. My name is Sian, I’m 28, I live in Scotland and I have a chronic illness called M.E.  What is M.E.? M.E stands for myalgic encephalomyelitis. It is also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).  How long have I had ME?  I developed M.E 2 years ago at the start of September. I was about to start college to study beauty therapy and the day before I had a headache. Ok, no big deal, everyone has headaches. By the evening it had developed into a migraine (you know, when you can’t stand the light, or sounds, and you feel like you’re going to throw up). I didn’t think too much of it and hoped it would be gone by the morning. Well, it didn’t go. In fact, I had that same migraine constantly for 6 months straight.  What did you do?  I got on with it. I started college the next day, and I attended every day I was supposed to until I couldn’t handle it anymore, which was Christmas 2016.  What ...
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Exercise

How do you exercise with a chronic illness?

I have been wondering for a while how you exercise with a chronic illness like ME.  My body has severely weakened since developing ME and it is a worry, as is being unable to get any exercise, which as we all know is good for you.  How do you do it when just climbing five or six stairs can render you breathless and ready to collapse? 

I monitor my heart rate with a fitness watch.  I came across some information at the start of the year about watching your heart rate and keeping it below the anaerobic threshold to try and avoid going into PEM (post exertional malaise).  Denys bought me a watch for my birthday and I have been using it ever since to help with pacing.  If I feel like I’m doing to much, or that my heart is having to work harder, I check my heart rate and rest accordingly.  I try to keep it below 100 bpm, my average seems to be within the 70’s, or sometimes the 80’s.  If my heart rate is too high, I will sit down and take some big, deep breaths until it returns to normal. 

But as I mentioned above, sometimes just climbing a few stairs pushes me up to 100+ bpm, which means exercise is very likely to do the same.  

One thing I’m thinking of looking into is yoga, but a class will be beyond my current capabilities, so I am going to have a look at YouTube. Do you manage to get any exercise, if so, what? Are there any channels or videos on YouTube that you recommend? Let me know below. 

Thanks for reading. 
That ME Girl 



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