Brief Update
I've decided to update this thread with my health progress once a month, figuring that the experience of one person who is being helped by Dr. Kaufman is pretty relevant.
I'm continuing to improve and can now go for slow 8 minute walks without any payback! Any walk longer than 8 minutes leaves me very tired for over an hour (yet still doesn't trigger PEM beyond an hour or two). I'm very careful to not raise my heart rate when walking and am happy to report that slow walks have turned out to be nothing like the awful "pushups experiment" of a few months ago! I seem to gain energy and health from this, and I walk about 3 times per week. I probably could do more, but I'm keeping it light on purpose.
Interestingly, during the time that I was bedridden, I gained quite a bit of muscle mass. This was probably due to a surplus of calories from inactivity, and those calories went straight to my muscles (this is the only good ME/CFS side effect I've had!). Anyway, after the first few walks, my leg and back and abdomen muscles were sore for days. So, even though my muscles had gained in size, apparently they had become weaker, as well.
I'm still on the ketogenic diet, and my supplement and medication schedules have stayed the same. Aside from my walks, I remain pretty inactive. I still can get PEM from overdoing it on the computer or from several brief outings in one day, so I remain careful and force myself to do much less than I want to. Still, the overall trend is steady improvement, and I might even be able to go back to grad school half time in September.
That's all for now!