Mostly sorted but.....

[heapsreal]

I've been back at work for 3 weeks. Before this I've been off work for 12 months with a knee injury, maybe a blessing in disguise as a chance to rest up. So 6 months waiting for surgery to have meniscus repaired and loose bodies removed so I could bend my knee. The last 6 months was rehab which was interrupted by a bad spell of headaches but now over it for now.

The 3 months prior to going back to work, I felt like everything was mostly in order. Sleep was good although medicated and it helped that I could sleep in abit longer if I needed to and not worry about work. Infections and immune system seemed fine, the reoccurring shingles episodes maybe once during this time and it was quite mild. Had a few headache episodes but nothing severe and no cfs crashes. Exercise wise I was weight training twice a week reasonably hard and a couple of extra days of just light rehab stuff for my knee for 15mins. Other than that I was lounging around watching utube or TV etc, nothing else physical. I think this was my energy envelope.

Now I'm back at work 4 days a week, mostly driving. My energy to keep wt training for general health and to keep my knee strong has dropped off considerably. It's outside of my energy envelope. It feels like lack of motivation but I know I have motivation just nothing left in the tank.

It's interesting to find that line on the energy envelope as usually there's something else in the way that makes it hard to really know where it is, like poor sleep, or viral reactivation going on or having to push yourself into a crash with work and then managing your way around it for months until you recover to some degree.

So I have a 9 and a half hour battery life if I work and then my days off are recovery days to fully charge them. I feel ok at work but when I get home, it's time to be supine for awhile and chillax and then I get up and watch TV with my wife etc etc then it's bed time. I've had a lot of good intentions of getting home and doing some weight training, which is a walk down stairs to my shed but the battery is flat, I've maxed out that energy envelope.

I suppose it's a common story that many people have but 21yrs of cfsme for me, I've never really had just an energy envelope problem. I'd mostly just completely crash and be a zombie for days or longer and/or have that viral feeling with swollen glands etc and slowly improved over weeks to get back to the pre crash state. I've been off all Caffeine stuff since last year and today took a Caffeine pill and some Alpha gpc to get me moving to do a workout and keep this knee strong. It did nothing, zip.

🤞 I'm on top off all infectious stuff🤞🤞🤞
Hormone replacement wise I'm on top off.
Sleep has been good.
I take enough supplements that I rattle.
Maybe it will just take some time to get my work fitness back??

Can we increase our energy envelope or is it a switch in cfsme to protect us from doing too much ?? Not that it's helped me from overdoing it in the past lol.

After all my ranting, I guess I'm saying at the moment it just feels like an energy or lack of energy thing. Where normally lack of energy is apart of it but also a sick viral feel to it, with poor sleep, pem etc. Dare I say chronic fatigue instead of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomylitis.

If 10 is normal, I'm at an 8. As I'm typing this, there's always that thing in the back of your head saying, that big crash is around the corner, watch out.

Although I'm not 100%, I'm glad I'm not in that place where I feel constantly shithouse, where I feel I'm walking in mud up to my waist and my head is constantly throbbing and sound sleep is a dream. Enjoy these breaks while they last 🙏

 

[ruben]

It seems to me broadly speaking, you could say there are 2 groups of us on here. The ones who simply feel tired and the others feel tired AND unwell.

 

[heapsreal]

It seems to me broadly speaking, you could say there are 2 groups of us on here. The ones who simply feel tired and the others feel tired AND unwell.

True but if it's just fatigue alone, than it doesnt fit the criteria for cfsme but also cfsme is well known to wax and wane .

What I thought was interesting after 21 years and probably only to others with cfsme, is to know that actual line or edge of one's energy envelope without any interference from infections, sleep issues etc.

Maybe I'm at a level where I need to add small amounts of cardio exercise to increase my energy envelope, without causing any detrimental effects.

Another thought is that in some of Dr Martin's personal research treating herpes infections in cfsme, he has had pts on antivirals for years or indefinitely. Touch wood, 🤞🙏, that maybe these viruses have finally gone latent??? I'm just left with the residual damage of just fatigue, that I may be able to improve with gently increasing my fitness??? I may be just in an upswing and its presenting differently to normal. Or maybe just being off work for a year has helped??