Tips, tricks, and life hacks for living with ME/CFS

I did a talk for my local support group. Here's a video of it. CW: discussion of suicide risk towards the end of the video. There may be other sensitive topics too, but I don't remember what I covered at the moment. I did a talk on tips, tricks, and life hacks for people with …

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I have Hipster Long Covid (I was doing it before it was cool), here’s my advice on how to avoid becoming like me

In March 2020 the scientist of the ME community predicted that Covid-19 would cause ME, a lifelong post-viral fatiguing illness, in a portion of those who recovered from infection. They estimated roughly 5-10%, based on SARS1, would struggle to return to pre-infection energy levels, and that many of these would never recover. It didn't take …

Heads it wins, tails I lose

Am I depressed or flaring? I'm tired and can't get the energy to do anything. I feel sick. I have a headache. My stomach hurts. My mood is low and I'm having panic attacks and anxiety. I can't get to sleep but when I do I can't wake up. I want to cry but can't. …

He asked how she was doing, her answer will surprise you.

I went to my ME support group meeting yesterday. I walked in and was greeted by another member: "Hi, how have you been? You look wrecked." "Thanks, I am." It's nice when someone notices.

The good news is it won’t* kill you. (*without help)

I want to address something that I've said a few times in the past (Here and here, and I touch on it here, for example) with isn't entirely 100% perfectly accurate. That ME/CFS won't kill you. Aside from the increases in suicide risk, there is a very small chance that with assistance/negligence from medical professionals …

The danger of feeling good

I'm having a good day today. Days like today are dangerous. I woke up groggy but feeling ok. The sun was shining and the weather warming up. I've been sleeping better, making myself stick to a "normalish" day/night cycle. I have also been eating a little better lately, making a conscious effort to undo the …

I’m out of lockdown, so now you can buy me a coffee.

While the rest of the world is seeing continued growth of COVID-19 cases, I'm safe in my bubble in the South Pacific. New Zealand spent 5 weeks in what appears to be one of the strictest lockdowns worldwide, a few more at what seems to be the most common version of lockdown, then 2 weeks …

There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza: failures of mobility aides to give independence

I went to an accessibility expo today. It was a bunch of companies promoting mobility aides and other accessibility and disability related equipment and services. While I was there I started pondering something that keeps coming up when I look at accessibility generally, anId for mobility aides for myself... It's like the old woman who …

Artsing it Old Skool

My husband was performing some music at our former school's spring fair. I knew I'd need to find something sedentary to entertain myself if the activity got to be too much, so I took my sketch kit... sure enough, I started to wilt. We made our circuit of the stalls in fits and starts before …

Feeling pleased with myself

I'm feeling almost "normal" today. The sun is shining, I got up early (for me) and stayed vertical for hours. I socialised, I helped move a wardrobe, I did laundry. I went out to buy gas for the bbq. I cooked dinner and cleaned up. I have to remind myself to be careful today because …