10/02/2021
(copied over from my personal page)
The dilemma of every person with ME/CFS: to push or not to push?
Exercise undoubtedly has benefits, both physically and psychologically - IF YOU CAN DO IT.
On the other hand, for people with ME/CFS, if you cross that invisible line and do Too Much, you can land yourself in bed for a week at least and three-six months at worst and completely lose any gains you've made.
Not to mention it can feel like exercising is a political statement, given the infamous PACE recommendations in the UK (and to myself in the days before we knew what ME/CFS was - yes I've had it that long) where people with ME/CFS, and now people with long COVID, are told that the best route is exercise to the point of debilitation regardless of whether they have the strength to even exercise in the first place.
This is compounded when you're a carer - and given that significantly more women are carers and I believe the rate of ME/CFS is higher among women than men (apparently it's as high as 4:1), it's an ongoing dilemma.
To cut a long story short: I'm a person with ME/CFS, and have been since my early twenties, if not my teens. I'm also a carer to my mother, who also has long term chronic health problems. And of necessessity, sometimes that has to come first, even when I have to drag myself out of bed to do it.
I'd just come out of a busy two weeks juggling both roles which had left me drained (just ask Anthony - I could only lift 60kgs doing deads) and was looking forward to a relatively quiet week when Mum experienced a flare-up of a condition which we thought was sorted. Between managing it and juggling the options - can I manage this at home? what path do I take? Do I take her to the doctors, which is physically and emotionally exhausting as well? (Plus in this weather taking her for a test probably tipped her over the edge in the first place.) Does she need specialist intervention?
As you can guess, dealing with this isses, as well as trying to manage a stubborn woman who, after a life of Having To Do Things, will overdo things unless you intervene (and just try and tell something to someone who's given birth to you) has utterly drained me, physically, psychologically and emotionally.
I said very firmly to both my trainers (yes, I'm so speshul I have two PTs - long story) that this year I wasn't going to blow myself up, as I have several times in the past, by inadvertantly pushing myself too far when I've been exercising. As anyone with ME/CFS knows, the line between managing and doing too much is an ever-shifting thing and can change fast. Like, literally mid-workout fast. And that I was going to err on the side of caution by pulling the plug if I was in doubt.
So, Kane, Anthony, I'm absolutely knackered this week, so I'm only doing one weights session on top of the PT session.
Hopefully I'll be good for next week.
