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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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Birthday Celebrations

I had a really good birthday, and I was spoilt rotten. 


My dad flew up from East Midlands airport for a few days which was nice, and my health was good, too. 

By the time I had woken up, it was already better than last year. That birthday wasn't brilliant; we had driven down to see my family and stayed with my sister for a week, but two days before my birthday I was sick multiple times with no obvious cause. It didn't seem to be as a result of food poisoning or a bug as everyone else was unaffected. It took  days for me to be able to start eating again as I was left with an intense pain in my upper abdomen, which completely shut down my appetite. I still experience this pain, but thankfully in shorter bursts. I had blood tests, scans and a gastroscopy, but they have so far been unable to explain why I have pain.

My birthday this year was much better, and continued to be all day. Denys's parents came over at lunchtime and I opened my presents. Later in the evening my dad, Denys and I went to a Chinese restaurant and the food was amazing. 



It took me a few days to recover after my dad left, mostly because Denys and I are used to it just being the two of us, but I had a fantastic time while he was up. Almost every activity and social event causes me to get 'payback', or PEM (post exertional malaise, a symptom I have talked about previously, and a key symptom of M.E.). Denys's brother and family are up this week so there hasn't been a lot of downtime. I was pretty fatigued yesterday which affected my legs and made them weak, I'm hoping they will be better today. I really enjoy seeing Denys and his brother interact, they are always laughing and joking about something, which reminds me of my relationship with my sister .

Following on from my last post, I started taking the Cheds CBD hybrid capsules a few nights ago and I seemed to be getting to sleep faster than usual, so after a few nights I tried going without Melatonin to put it to the test, but it looks like it isn't actually helping, which is disappointing. I don't like having to take sleeping tablets, but they're the only thing that gets me to sleep. I have always struggled with insomnia and problems with getting off to sleep, and this has only gotten worse since having M.E. I have to switch between the main three sleeping tablets (Melatonin, Zopiclone and Zolpidem) often as they lose their effect after a period. The horrible irony with M.E. is that you can be tired all day, yet at night you can't sleep, it's cruel in that way. Do you take anything to help you sleep? Let me know. 

Thanks for reading. 
That ME Girl 


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