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I was advised I'd need a couple of hours to recover, and that they'd prefer to keep me on the ward for some time after I'd come round to make sure there were no reactions. They said it would be three hours or so, so pretty similar. I was worried about how the combination of sedative drugs and...

That was my first thought, but might it be something that could easily be overlooked? If the ferritin levels were higher than normal but not high enough to suggest iron overload, and patients had none of the symptoms classically associated with iron metabolism or storage issues, it wouldn't even...

People often seem to direct this question to the ME Association. I think they even had a list of ME-friendly GPs at one point that members had recommended, although of course they didn't make it public, they just responded to queries about doctors in particular areas of the country. It might be...

If your friends and contacts use WhatsApp, @JemPD, maybe just download that onto your computer once you have your smartphone? It doesn't work independently, it needs to be linked to a phone, but once it's set up you don't need to use the phone keyboard for texts at all. There may be other...

Just after Christmas I nagged someone to contact his MP about a welfare issue—he hadn't done so because he assumed, as a Conservative, they'd be unsympathetic. They turned out to be really helpful, and got it sorted quite quickly. The cynic in me wondered whether they too were worried about...

It's been absolutely devastating for wildlife, I only hope it doesn't jump to humans in a form that's easily transmissible.

We clearly need ChatGPT in our advocacy team! :laugh: Be fun to send the result to one of the Cochrane email addresses, if you have the energy.

...and I missed it!

Already got my good ear cocked for sound of professorial head being banged against wall! :laugh:

Yes, it pretty much IS most of mine, since symptom levels are to a large extent determined by how much PEM hangover there is. Symptoms never go away, but then again, nor does PEM. It's hard to decide whether to call it cause or effect, as simply being alive will result in PEM-triggering energy...

Interesting—though I guess that will include existing claimants whose circumstances change. Which probably means more like 2030 in real life. At least one, and potentially two, governments away.

I know it sounds terrifying, but ... there WILL be spaces in the guidelines that allow ways around some of this stuff, and welfare advisors WILL find them. I'm not saying it won't be shitty, and that some of the most vulnerable people will suffer. It goes without saying, and yes, it's...

Yes, I was trying to work part-time freelance, but had to stop to recover from relapses. If there was more than 13 weeks since your last claim, you had to make a new one. I was advised by the local council always to apply for both C-ESA and I-ESA, and when I made that final claim, DWP said I...

I got my mail saying they'd been successful yesterday too (sample sent October). I wondered if there's sometimes a lag between the samples actually being analysed and batches of email going out. Anyway, it's good to know I can now tick it off my stuff-that's-not-yet-resolved list!

I'm a bit unclear about this too. I'd been on C-ESA, but at the next claim was switched to income-related ESA. This was based on one tax year, the only year out of 38 when I didn't make full NI contributions through full-time work. It's still the basis of my award now. (I'm not complaining, by...

Wouldn't surprise me either. Two-thirds of ESA claimants qualify for the support group, and I dare say they'll want to get that down.

I've often wondered whether this is connected to theories about endothelial issues and blood supply. If muscle fibres had been operating rather short on oxygen-rich blood and then the supply came back on line once they were at rest, it might feel like this. A sort of reperfusion injury, but in...

Thanks, @Andy. Unlikely to do much good, but I've submitted my three penn'orth.

If our bodies are following an evolutionary pathway that triggers biochemical processes to steer behaviour, I suppose it makes sense that attempts to ignore the symptoms result in the response doubling down? Infectious disease can wipe out a large proportion of a population, so a strong drive to...

I like it when people follow up the slightly bonkers stuff, despite knowing their peers will probably think it's slightly bonkers. This is how hard problems sometimes get solved.