Chronic Life Hacks

09/10/2025

5 hours of testing done for Universityof Melbourne and CFS research, including 1hr in the extra big and fancy research MRI machine and 1hr in PET scanner 🎉. Day 2 of testing in 3 weeks 😀

Image: mirror selfie of Claire wearing blue scrubs and an n95 mask with nose wire removed

09/10/2025

5:30pm outdoor dining on Lygon Street with a uni friend.

I am in the city staying in a hotel for the night before 5 hours of testing for a ME/CFS University of Melbourne and Open Medicine Foundation study tomorrow inc MRI and PET scans.

30/03/2025

30/03/2025

My posts weren't auto sharing here.

30/03/2025

21/08/2024

My towns Community Centre, where I teach yoga, was shut down by the government on the 1st of August as it is insolvent and has governance issues 🫤.

The government has provided 8 wks funding for caretaker management by another Community Centre. Under them I am contracted to teach until the end of term, and then it is uncertain.

The Community Centre owns the
lease to the lovely venue (in photo 1-3) which I hire to teach another yoga class.
Sadly we lost access to this space last week. The locks have been changed and the space sits empty while the administration case proceeds. The lease may need to be sold by the creditors.

I was able to scramble and secure hire to use the Community Centre's own hall to teach Monday morning but it took until 7pm Friday to finish organising it and I've had to change class time to be an hour later which complicates my morning 🫠.

The administrator was appointed this week, then a date for the hearing? tribunal? will be set.

Very unfortunate and draining situation but grateful to still be able to offer my students classes in the interim or for at least the next 4 weeks of term.

Am counting down to the end of term break more closely than usual 😅 it's been a lot of extra mental load this month.

I hope your body and mind are kind to you today
💛 Claire

Image 1 A timber floored Community hall with a yoga class of students lying on their backs during relaxation.

Image 2 The same hall showing floor to ceiling glass windows and open sliding glass doors looking out on a timber verandah and green parkland

Image 3 the same hall looking towards the single floor to ceiling glass door and window with sunshine streaming in and onto the floor

Image 4 the main Community centre hall where I now teach both classes. Timber floor and narrow windows high up running the length of the building.

22/06/2024

Winter solstice 2024

Our 1st ever homegrown orange (3 more on the tree).

One more week of teaching yoga for the term before a two week break.

Hugs to you my dear pocket friends 🥰

I hope your bodies and minds are kind to you today

Claire 💛

Image- close up of Claire's hand holding an orange infront of a deep blue sky and blurred gum trees.

*Posted on instagram yesterday

12/05/2024

May 12th is ME/CFS Awareness day.

ME/CFS is a devastating neurological condition that requires at least a 50% reduction in pre morbid capacity for diagnosis. It is so much more than chronic fatigue- and always needs Syndrome added if you use that term for ME/CFS.

ME/CFS has severely impacted my life EVERY SINGLE DAY for 31 years, since I was 13 and came down with a flu similar to Cxxid.

Much of my days energy just goes towards managing my condition and I have to limit my activity and make sure I rest enough so I don't deteriorate further.

I spend hours every week dealing with health professionals and beauracracy to try and get the supports I need to have a better quality of life because ME/CFS is so poorly understood.

I joke I could have finished a Phd. instead of all the self advocacy, research, report drafting, and chasing things up required to gain access to our National Disability Insurance Scheme.

There are no approved treatments for ME/CFS solely due to stigma about ME/CFS and willful lack of government funded research.Cxxid means there are approx 4x the number of people living with with ME/CFS now and still governments are dismissing the seriousness of cxxid infections and the ongoing devastation they are having on millons of people's lives.

This means as patients with ME/CFS we are left searching to find off label treatments, self advocating, and seeking out health professionals willing to support us, to listen to what we are saying and to take on board new ideas.

HELP RAISE AWARENESS AND LEARN MORE YOURSELF.

WITH AWARENESS COMES GREATER RESPECT AND AN UNDERSTANDING THAT MONEY MUST BE DIRECTED INTO HIGH QUALITY NON BIASED RESEARCH UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF PROFESSIONALS WHO ARENT PUSHING THEIR OWN AGENDA EG GRADED EXERCISE.

WE NEED A CURE

I hope you body and mind are kind to you today 💙

💛 Claire

01/04/2024

I am having a few nights in Melbourne to put a hired Omeo mobility device through its paces in the process of my OT and I deciding if it's the right wheels for my needs. Today, a dear uni friend came, and we wheeled from Port Melbs to St Kilda for quick outdoor dining shared yummy lunch overlooking the bay. She hired a Lime ebike, which are easy to find along the foreshore. 10km round trip which was amazing to zoom along together. She had been isolating all long wkend and I felt safe taking my mask off just to eat and wore it while we sat chatting (she lives alone and needed big rest wkend anyway to manage her health). I also had my little Sunbeam air purifier, and used travel nasal spray. I bought along my big Samsung air purifier and had it running since I arrived and while I was out so the airbnb studio apartment feels a safer space (windows and door open too).

Easy food at the ready, including microwave suitable meals. Shower stool, yoga mat, heating pad etc etc to best manage recovery. My NDIS funded support worker helped me get organised to come, drove me, unpacked, and is only 40 mins away if I need. The airbnb lady is super keen to help if I need too and lives in the building. There is an outdoor heated pool I hope to make use of 🤞. And some bay dips. Will see how energy goes 💛

I hope your body and mind are kind to you today.

Love Claire

31/12/2023

A new year arrives tomorrow, my dear pocket friends 💕.

Sending love 🥰

Pic 1. Claire lying in a hammock, wearing a thrifted sequinned dress before 8pm bedtime.
Pic 2. 6pm view from hammock, blue sky and gum trees

06/12/2023

Thought todays view deserved a spot on the grid.

We stopped here for me to rest before a 90 min Occupational Therapy appointment nearby.
Lovely OT's who happily mask for me without me needing to ask.

Before that was the Creative Group Christmas morning tea for one hour. Held in a spacious hall where I could be distanced and masked apart from while eating.

Definitely the biggest day I've had in some time. Several factors meant the two made good sense to be scheduled on the same day. Rigorous rest after.

Another week, then 6 week's summer break from teaching yoga.

I hope your body and mind are being kind to you this week dear pocket friends.

💛 Claire

Pic 1 view out of the car window of the bay from a hilltop carpark framed by tree silhouette.

Pic 2 and 3 shared Christmas morning tea spread out on my thrifted vintage Santa print tablecloth. Including homemade freshly picked pine tree branch wreath style table centrepiece and christmas crackers.

01/10/2023

Hello Dear Pocket Friends,

Popped onto my grid after a big break to share some warm hearted life things.
💛
I gained access to the NDIS (Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme that gives access to disability related supports). Many of you will know how incredibly arduous and obfuscated the process typically is!!
💛
I reached 5 years of teaching yoga, 2 classes a week during school terms, one contracted for the community centre, and one privately through my small business.
💛
This week the kookaburra laid 3 eggs in our nesting box again. We have a usb inspection camera in the box and a long cable that plugs into ph or laptop to view.
💛
I enjoyed making gifts for 3 September birthdays, and cakes for 2 of the birthdays to share at creative group. *am still masking at creative group apart from the few minutes of eating cake in a big hall.

I hope your body and mind have been kind to you today.

Love
Claire