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You don't have to name it, though. People at the music group I've been attending know I'm disabled (it's obvious), but none know it's ME. This week I turned up barely able to function because of brain fog, and in between laughing at myself or getting frustrated, I apologised to the tutor and...

In my case, I'm dead jealous of the skill and wish I could get halfway to the ease and economy many of them have! Not a chance. Even after 60 years of practice, I still sometimes communicate as if I've been locked in solitary confinement and am not used to moving my mouth, and I'm...

Since the 'flu jab is different each year, it's probably difficult to work it out. If someone has a really unpleasant reaction to it one year, they're unlikely to want it the next. They won't know whether they're vulnerable to a particular type of 'flu vaccine, or they're likely to be sensitive...

I wasn't sure of the answer to your question, so I decided to ask ChatGPT. ––––––––––– Q: Are there diseases where viral persistence has been shown to be a factor? A: There are several diseases in which viral persistence plays a significant role. Viral persistence refers to the ability of a...

Trundling about in a wheelchair, counting stuff. It doesn't necessarily involve a huge amount of walking even if you don't use a chair, as survey areas can be quite small for some species. It probably wouldn't be very appealing to anyone who didn't find newts or butterflies or snakes...

I've always made social relationships through doing things, as I can't base conversation on a blank canvas either. I made some new contacts last month by starting music tuition at a local community group, and then staying on for the session afterwards. The lessons are only half an hour, and the...

It's advertising. I'd be having fun writing parodies of this stuff and submitting them as preprints, if the energy were available.

What's the academic term for 'medicine is really stupid sometimes'? Because that's the third version of pragmatism. It wins the pragmatism contest because you can describe the entire theory in phone emojis.

They'll soon be discovering that the EN-RAGE gene is upregulated in middle-aged women, mark my words.

Yes, but as I've had them since I was a kid, I doubt mine are directly connected to ME. In the UK they're usually called retinal migraines, as it seems to be the retina that goes screwy. One of the things that reliably triggers mine is bright sunlight early in the summer, before I've...

Sounds great, I hope we get to hear afterwards about what she said.

It is, but if it gets unwieldy, relationship mapping software would make it a lot easier. Setting projects up always needs a bit of an investment of cognitive energy/capacity, but once you've got started, the software's are usually quite intuitive. The only type I've used myself are family...

I had the pneumococcal a couple of years ago. I don't usually react badly to vaccines, but I did feel quite tired for a couple of days after this. Nothing else though, and no increase in ME symptoms. As well as some types of pneumonia, the surgery told me that the jab may also help protect...

It sounds slightly sinister to me, in the sense of making sickness benefits contingent on having sought treatment. I don't know if that's the right interpretation, but if it is, it works two ways. It would have been an enormous risk to ME patients pre-Nice guidelines, but it could theoretically...

From @MSEsperanza: Yes. At least according to the Cochrane Handbook, as pointed out in one of the published responses to the Anomalies paper: "NICE did downgrade quality of evidence when subjective outcomes (not just fatigue, but also pain, sleep, quality of life, etc.) were used in trials...

Our surgery does, and they're available at the rheumatology clinic too. When I went for my Covid jab the pharmacist asked if I'd like him to wear one, and as there was a box on the table, I guess I could have asked for one if I wanted. So in some places they're available, but whether that'd be...

It's an interesting point, but central government knows perfectly well that local government hasn't the capacity to offer social care to all the people who need it even now. Whitehall has failed to put in place policy to make care work an attractive career choice, and councils have lost so much...

The bizarre thing is that they never mention what actually needs changing, which is the way employers discriminate against disabled people. I've worked with quite a number who had significant impairments but weren't ill. They all wanted opportunities to build better careers, but it had bugger...

Indeed. And if it is firmly rejected, despite the fact that White et al waited to publish their article until Nice might be assumed to have its focus elsewhere because it's "done" ME, it's a useful rap on the knuckles.

I had the usual feeling of having taken a stimulant the day after my jab on Monday, plus a couple of hours of feeling alternately warm and then cold last night. Other that that, nothing—I just got a bit more done than usual because of the extra energy.