Feeling better before PEM/PENE sets in

[Mariah]

I've noticed that I often feel better before a crash or PEM/PENE sets in. It will go something like this: I overdo something i.e. 20 minutes in a quite café with my boyfriend. I get the initial overload "I have to get out of here"-feeling, with feeling lightheaded, foggy, nauseas and generally bad. I get home and sit/lay down and I feel better than before I went out for anything from 20 minutes to a few hours. Then PEM slowly sets in, and I crash. Sometimes it doesn't propely set in before the next day or night.

What causes these minutes/hours of feeling better before the PEM? Is it better bloodcirculation, adrenaline rush or something else? Does anybody have an easy and understandable way of explaining this?

 

[taniaaust1]

in my own case this very occassionally happens too, I think its due to the adrenaline ..running off of adrenaline (while other times Im just horribly overloaded on it). My adrenaline seems to be unstable.

 

[Mariah]

Mine too @taniaaust1. It does feel like adrenaline has something to do with it.

 

[parabola]

I get something similar happen just before I come down with a virus, which is as if my immune system is briefly distracted providing relief, but then viral symptoms themselves kick in

 

[mango]

http://www.hfme.org/adrenalinesurgetips.htm

 

[justy]

I fi rest for long enough that I can go out and do something nice I often feel a surge of energy the next day and continue to overdo in the belief that perhaps all I needed was to get out and about. A couple of days of this pushing through on a high and I can end up bed bound for a week or two.

It gets me everytime!

 

[Mariah]

Thank you so much @mango ! Think I've read this before, but forgot all about it. This explains so much.

@justy Omg, yes! Could have copy/pasted your words, it's like that exactly. I have a pattern going on right now. I will only see my boyfriend on weekends as we live in different towns. I know I act way more healthy than I am with him (not his fault, he is very considerate). Friday when I see him I usually feel quite ill. Towards the end of the night the adrenaline has kicked in, and I am on a "high". Saturday is my best day of the week, the adrenaline is at its all time high, and I i.e. go to a café or "shopping" with him. Can't tolerate much of neither walking nor all the sensory overload as I am moderately to severly ill usually, so after about 30 minutes we have to go home, cause I feel worse, adrenaline or not. After resting just a little bit, I feel "great" (very relative) again. Sunday, the decline usually start, and monday I wake up feeling quite bad. But that is my day to grocery shop and run short errands so I power through. Adrenaline rises again, before tuesday night were I start feeling extremely bad. Tuesday, wednesday and thursday I spend in bed, in the dark feeling severly ill. My illness is progressing year by year. I used to think that maybe the reason I felt so ill, much worse and just declining every day I'm resting, on the days I was actually fully resting was because the rest was somehow bad for me, that I did not have M.E., that I should get up and do something in stead of just laying there with all symptoms turned up to 11. Now, I'm starting to think it's because of all these adrenaline surges, that me being so severly ill tuesday, wednesday, thursday and friday and my disease progressing, is my body telling me to please slow down. Sorry for the looong explanation . Your comment just set off some thoughts :-D.

 

[justy]

Thank you so much @mango ! Think I've read this before, but forgot all about it. This explains so much.

@justy Omg, yes! Could have copy/pasted your words, it's like that exactly. I have a pattern going on right now. I will only see my boyfriend on weekends as we live in different towns. I know I act way more healthy than I am with him (not his fault, he is very considerate). Friday when I see him I usually feel quite ill. Towards the end of the night the adrenaline has kicked in, and I am on a "high". Saturday is my best day of the week, the adrenaline is at its all time high, and I i.e. go to a café or "shopping" with him. Can't tolerate much of neither walking nor all the sensory overload as I am moderately to severly ill usually, so after about 30 minutes we have to go home, cause I feel worse, adrenaline or not. After resting just a little bit, I feel "great" (very relative) again. Sunday, the decline usually start, and monday I wake up feeling quite bad. But that is my day to grocery shop and run short errands so I power through. Adrenaline rises again, before tuesday night were I start feeling extremely bad. Tuesday, wednesday and thursday I spend in bed, in the dark feeling severly ill. My illness is progressing year by year. I used to think that maybe the reason I felt so ill, much worse and just declining every day I'm resting, on the days I was actually fully resting was because the rest was somehow bad for me, that I did not have M.E., that I should get up and do something in stead of just laying there with all symptoms turned up to 11. Now, I'm starting to think it's because of all these adrenaline surges, that me being so severly ill tuesday, wednesday, thursday and friday and my disease progressing, is my body telling me to please slow down. Sorry for the looong explanation . Your comment just set off some thoughts :-D.

Yes, I can relate to this and your thoughts make complete sense. Even though I know overdoing it is bad for me I start to believe that the M.E isn't real and that I just need to go out more - this ALWAYS ends in a bad crash. You are yo-yoing up and down between adrenaline and crashing by the sounds of it. Resting more and doing less on the weekends should help to even that out.

I have to walk a very fine line as only resting makes me feel better, however not pushing a tiny bit also makes me feel worse in the long run.

 

[Mariah]

@justy Still haven't figured out that balance 8 years into my illness. All I know is, the disease is progressing and I don't know what to do to stabilize it. I seem to not tolerate anything these days. But when I push some, and seem to tolerate a little bit anyway, I don't know If I truly tolerate it, or if it's just the temporary rush talking. Hard navigating this disease!

 

[Art Vandelay]

I get this too. For example, after a stress-test echocardiogram recently, I felt wired, talkative and energetic on the way home. It was only 3-4 hours later when I started to crash and I could barely walk the next day.