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 ...
Denys and I have been quite busy recently with my birthday, and we had two sets of family come up for a visit, which means there hasn't been a lot of time to relax. I'm a social person, but that has become harder since developing M.E. as it wipes me out much faster than before. With illnesses like M.E. you have to find your new limits in terms of socialising and pushing your body; it's not just about learning to live with pain everyday, or what you can and can't do physically anymore, even things like sitting in a room with someone and talking uses up more energy than before. Then there's also the added factor that what uses up more energy one day, is different the next, it is so changeable and those limits fluctuate. Pacing If you have a chronic illness like M.E., you'll more than likely be aware of 'pacing', or will have at least read about it somewhere. The idea is that by adapting and making small changes in everyday life, you wi...