Severe PEM...feels like I don't even have the energy to breathe....

[Timaca]

Well, my experience this past month has been quite eye opening to me, so perhaps it will help someone else. I had been feeling quite fine....very good in fact for me. So I decided to try swimming in our outdoor gym pool.....using a buoyancy belt so it wouldn't be too much work. I swam 6 lengths of the pool and 3 hours later I was horizontal and could NOT move. That night I couldn't watch a movie because it was too much stimulation for me. It took me 2 days to recover. This has happened to me before....hence my reluctance to continue to swim. I try it every year or two and have the same issue. Now, I know for sure, swimming that amount of time (total of 15 minutes max in the pool) does NOT work for me.

Now, it is possible that it was too much exercise....but I kinda doubt that. I can snorkel for an hour in the ocean, sometimes swimming hard to get somewhere, and don't have that problem. The following weekend, I hiked 5 miles at 8,000 to 9,000 feet and while I got tired, it wasn't the same level of exhaustion at all.

And when I sat in a hot tub recently, I had a bad afternoon.

So, I am suspecting chlorine. Which means I am taking a hard look at the water I drink (I'm now using water filters to take out the chlorine), and the cleaning supplies and laundry detergents I use (dish washer detergents too).

I was absolutely shocked at how one little swim (and one sitting in a hot tub) caused me to feel so much worse.....