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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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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



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