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 ...
I've recently had problems with swallowing; I can be eating or drinking and suddenly my body forgets how to swallow. I have been experiencing this late at night for a few months, but last week it leaked into the day, too. All three meals for two days were a real struggle. We use around fifty pairs of muscles and nerves to swallow, and it's mostly just an automatic thing, except for me it wasn't. I would try to initiate the swallow movement, but the food/drink wouldn't go down, and it would also block off my air supply, so I was unable to breathe. I would also not be able to swallow saliva. We went to see a GP as it was really distressing and I was becoming scared to eat, everytime I tried it would feel like my heart was in a vice, and that I was not going to be able to breathe again. I then started to have anxiety about eating or drinking anything, and I kept breaking down crying. My GP has sent a referral to the upper GI (gastrointestinal) clinic...