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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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Now that the pressure's off

So how was everyone's Christmas?



It can be a stressful time of year for everyone, but particularly those who are unwell, or have a chronic illness. There's so much pressure for it to be the perfect Christmas: the perfect day, the perfect family and perfect presents.



I was able to be up and 'on' all day, from 6am, up until bedtime, all without a nap or rest. My health is better this year and I know my body and condition well, I know when to call it quits and rest and when I can push a little more. Denys and I had a great day with his parents, the food was nice and we were both spoilt.  Upon reflection I'm able to see just how well I did this year physically, my pain levels have been very low which has a big effect on my mood and ability to socialise and enjoy myself.

It caught up with me on Boxing Day when I was fatigued mentally as well as physically. Since then we have been taking it easy, just relaxing and enjoying this time of year together (as well as some of my new pajamas). Today, however, I struggled to get out of bed, it must have caught up with me and I wasn't able to get up until around 4pm. I don't have days like this often, obviously my body needed to rest and that's ok.

We have Denys's parents coming to stay tomorrow for New Year - last year we were able to see the Edinburgh Hogmanay fireworks from our spare bedroom, and we're hoping we can again this year. 

I hope 2019 is a good year for everyone, with as little pain and problems as possible. 


Thanks for reading.
That ME Girl
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