Skip to main content

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 ...
Post a Comment

TENS Machine

I might be having a small M.E. crash at the moment, and now seems like a perfect time to talk about TENS machines.


What is a TENS machine?


It stands for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. It is a small machine that can help with pain by using a mild electrical current. You stick pads onto the affected area and when it's switched on, small electrical impulses are delivered to them. It isn't as scary as it sounds; some women use them when they're in labour.


I came across them online a bit over a year ago when the pain in my legs was almost unbearable. I was aware that the NHS can lend them to patients, but I wasn't aware of the time frame in getting one, and I was going out of my mind with pain, so we took the risk and bought a small, digital one from Argos for £29.99 (I will put a link to it at the bottom).

The NHS say that "the electrical impulses can reduce the pain signals going to the spinal cord and brain, which may help relieve pain and relax muscles. They also stimulate the production of endorphins, which are the body's natural painkillers".

So, we bought a TENS, and having looked up how to position the pads, I gave it a go. Thankfully for me, it worked. The main body of it fits into the palm of your hand and is one of the smallest machines I've seen. It is charged via a USB cable within about an hour, and you easily get 5+ hours of use from it on one charge. It comes with two cables that you plug into the bottom of it, and there are poppers at the end of the cables which attach to the pads positioned on your skin.


It worked straight away. You feel a vibrating or tingling feeling where the pads are placed and it cuts off the pain receptors linked to your brain. At first, you can't help but focus on the tingling sensation, but it's surprising how quickly you adjust and don't even notice it, which means you also don't feel the pain you once had.


It is one of my best coping strategies, and I always turn to it before I take any additional painkillers. In the future, I'd like to give a wireless one a go as the cables can get in the way, but for now it does the job just fine.

You can find the one I use here. 

Thanks for reading.
That ME Girl



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stupid ME

I have been looking forward to today all week, but once again ME ruins the party.  I woke up in pain and felt weak and shaky, I hoped it would ease off, instead it's just getting worse. We were supposed to be having a lunch date and then I would do some shopping, but when we got in the car I realised I wasn't going to feel better and so there was no point going out.  It feels as though my skeleton is shaking on the inside, and like I'm going to pass out or fall over with weakness. I spent an hour doing my hair and makeup just for it to go to waste. I don't often have the strength to put on makeup and go out so it was a big deal to me, but this cruel illness has taken the day away from me. It could have picked any other day this week to show up, any other day when I was already at home with no plans, but it chose today. Since becoming unwell, I have found myself wishing more and more days away, hoping for a good day, but with the good days come the bad days, ...
2 comments
Read more

Meet up with the local ME group

I’m tired... Today I met up with some fellow ME’ers for lunch. There is a Facebook group for my local area for anyone affected by ME. I attended a lunch date once before months ago, but I haven’t been able to go again until today.  I was pretty nervous walking into the restaurant as I didn’t know any of the members who would be there, so Denys walked in with me and got me to the group. I’m not as shy as I used to be, but it’s a bit intimidating being one person sitting there compared to most of them being a couple, but I think I did ok.  I realised that I’m lucky, yes I have pain everyday, sometimes I need to use a walking stick and I can’t work, but I sat next to a lady who is mostly wheelchair bound and can hardly eat due to stomach issues, and I heard about a lady who has been unwell with ME since she was a child. My heart aches for them, I know I am fortunate that I can move around my house most days, I can eat and socialise in small bites.  I lik...
1 comment
Read more

The Big Garden Birdwatch

It has been the Big Garden Birdwatch over the last few days .  It is carried out by the UK charity and organisation, the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) on an annual basis. They ask people to spend one hour documenting how many birds of certain species come into your garden at any one time. It is so they can keep a record of bird numbers and they use the data provided by the public to watch for any bird declines. I believe this was the 40th year of the birdwatch taking place.  I have talked about the birds in our garden before. If you'd have asked me this time last year if I was interested in birds or could single out a certain bird call and what it means, I would have stared blankly at you. I never imagined I would get into birdwatching, but having time on my hands and noticing them living out their lives suddenly became interesting to me. Now I'm able to identify many different species, I know when a blackbird or robin is in distress or scared ...
2 comments
Read more