If this is the first time you've read anything about M.E., please do not think that in any way what I'm about to describe is the norm. It is not, hence my reason for blogging it.
As I'm sure we're all familiar with by now, I lost my baby on April 13th. A month and ten days ago. As such it's been six or seven months since I last had a period. I had forgotten some of the things that go alongside having a period ... for me at least. Obviously, everyone's experience is different.
For me, in particular, I have a rather strange form of PMT, which always seems to happen the day before my period. I'd completely forgotten about it, and it was only yesterday evening when I sat exhausted staring bleary eyed at the computer that I realised that was what was going on. (So yes, you maths genii, I started my period today).
Yesterday morning I got up, and I decided it would be a good idea to bake a cake. On a normal day this would be a challenge for me; I would struggle to stand up to mix the cake, so would opt to bring the mixture in to the living room and do it ... make adaptions for each part of cake making as I went along. This did not happen yesterday. Not only that, but because I have only just moved in to a new home, the entire process was a whole lot more complicated.
First of all I went to Tesco to buy some ingredients I did not have. Whilst there I figured I may as well fill the car up with fuel. I did use a disabled parking space, but I left my stick in the car and did not realise until I returned to it. Once home, I realised that T does not have some of the things I required for baking a cake, and that some of his things were not suitable. As such this meant unpacking boxes containing my kitchen belongings. This in turn meant moving a lot of boxes around upstairs, bringing some down, taking others up. There were still a few boxes littering up the bedroom, so I decided to empty and sort through the contents of them. I figured that since I was going up and down stairs a few times I should take laundry down with me, so I ran the washing machine three times. Once I'd moved the boxes from the bedroom floor I gave it a vacuum, then vacuumed the landing, T's bedroom, and the stairs were covered in cat fur, so I vacuumed them, taking the cleaner downstairs with me. Once the cake was in the oven I vacuumed the kitchen, utility room, and office floors, before giving them a good mopping. While I waited for the cake to cool I vacuumed the hallway and living room, took the clean laundry back upstairs and sorted through it. Once the cake was cool enough I made the icing, and covered it carefully with a bowl. I then went and ran a bath, and only realised it was 6pm because T got home from work.
I know I have gone in to meticulous detail about my day, which could be considered a little odd. The reason though, is that it demonstrates that I did A LOT yesterday. I am not sure whether this is considered a lot by a healthy person's standards, but it certainly is for someone with M.E.. Normally such activity would be spread out over the period of a week, or more.
As long as I can remember I have been this way though; the day before my period I get a completely new wind, and not only can do everything, but need to do everything. After I'd had the bath last night I dragged T out for dinner, where I eventually discovered that when I left the fuel station in the morning I'd forgotten to put my debit card back in my purse. Oops. Thank you for paying for dinner T.
I just couldn't stop. I needed to do more and more. The way my mind was working felt so completely different to normal. I was able to plan, and to multitask. I was able to plan what I would do during the time used for cooking the cake. I was able to see that I could take something downstairs, and then take something else back up with me for later use when I returned to continue what I was doing. I know these are normal thought processes that normal people do all the time, but usually I really struggle with these. The worse I am with M.E. the harder it is to think in such ways.
I realised last night that I used to be that way all of the time. Before I was ill, obviously. When I used to work my colleagues called me the Queen Of Multi-tasking; anyone who knows me now would think that was a joke ... unless they saw me in action yesterday anyway.
And this leads me to wonder ... this now only happens to me the day before my period. From what I remember of GCSE biology, that is the point at which the hormone levels are crossing over, triggering the shedding of the uterine lining. Are there some other chemical reactions going on also caused by that crossing over that cause me to become hyperactive? Am I being hyperactive, or is something actually cancelling M.E. out for a day? When the hormone levels cross over the other way do I have the oposite affect? I don't know, but I shall try and remember to watch out for it. And does anyone else with M.E. experience the same thing that I do?
The cake is delicious by the way.
As I'm sure we're all familiar with by now, I lost my baby on April 13th. A month and ten days ago. As such it's been six or seven months since I last had a period. I had forgotten some of the things that go alongside having a period ... for me at least. Obviously, everyone's experience is different.
For me, in particular, I have a rather strange form of PMT, which always seems to happen the day before my period. I'd completely forgotten about it, and it was only yesterday evening when I sat exhausted staring bleary eyed at the computer that I realised that was what was going on. (So yes, you maths genii, I started my period today).
Yesterday morning I got up, and I decided it would be a good idea to bake a cake. On a normal day this would be a challenge for me; I would struggle to stand up to mix the cake, so would opt to bring the mixture in to the living room and do it ... make adaptions for each part of cake making as I went along. This did not happen yesterday. Not only that, but because I have only just moved in to a new home, the entire process was a whole lot more complicated.
First of all I went to Tesco to buy some ingredients I did not have. Whilst there I figured I may as well fill the car up with fuel. I did use a disabled parking space, but I left my stick in the car and did not realise until I returned to it. Once home, I realised that T does not have some of the things I required for baking a cake, and that some of his things were not suitable. As such this meant unpacking boxes containing my kitchen belongings. This in turn meant moving a lot of boxes around upstairs, bringing some down, taking others up. There were still a few boxes littering up the bedroom, so I decided to empty and sort through the contents of them. I figured that since I was going up and down stairs a few times I should take laundry down with me, so I ran the washing machine three times. Once I'd moved the boxes from the bedroom floor I gave it a vacuum, then vacuumed the landing, T's bedroom, and the stairs were covered in cat fur, so I vacuumed them, taking the cleaner downstairs with me. Once the cake was in the oven I vacuumed the kitchen, utility room, and office floors, before giving them a good mopping. While I waited for the cake to cool I vacuumed the hallway and living room, took the clean laundry back upstairs and sorted through it. Once the cake was cool enough I made the icing, and covered it carefully with a bowl. I then went and ran a bath, and only realised it was 6pm because T got home from work.
I know I have gone in to meticulous detail about my day, which could be considered a little odd. The reason though, is that it demonstrates that I did A LOT yesterday. I am not sure whether this is considered a lot by a healthy person's standards, but it certainly is for someone with M.E.. Normally such activity would be spread out over the period of a week, or more.
As long as I can remember I have been this way though; the day before my period I get a completely new wind, and not only can do everything, but need to do everything. After I'd had the bath last night I dragged T out for dinner, where I eventually discovered that when I left the fuel station in the morning I'd forgotten to put my debit card back in my purse. Oops. Thank you for paying for dinner T.
I just couldn't stop. I needed to do more and more. The way my mind was working felt so completely different to normal. I was able to plan, and to multitask. I was able to plan what I would do during the time used for cooking the cake. I was able to see that I could take something downstairs, and then take something else back up with me for later use when I returned to continue what I was doing. I know these are normal thought processes that normal people do all the time, but usually I really struggle with these. The worse I am with M.E. the harder it is to think in such ways.
I realised last night that I used to be that way all of the time. Before I was ill, obviously. When I used to work my colleagues called me the Queen Of Multi-tasking; anyone who knows me now would think that was a joke ... unless they saw me in action yesterday anyway.
And this leads me to wonder ... this now only happens to me the day before my period. From what I remember of GCSE biology, that is the point at which the hormone levels are crossing over, triggering the shedding of the uterine lining. Are there some other chemical reactions going on also caused by that crossing over that cause me to become hyperactive? Am I being hyperactive, or is something actually cancelling M.E. out for a day? When the hormone levels cross over the other way do I have the oposite affect? I don't know, but I shall try and remember to watch out for it. And does anyone else with M.E. experience the same thing that I do?
The cake is delicious by the way.
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