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It's my diagnosis too, but I refuse to use it for the same reason.

Oh, what a pain! It really is hard to to keep bits of you dry, as I know from having plaster casts. The best thing my former housemate came up with was (don't laugh) a well-inflated child's swimming armband fastened under her ankle. It meant her foot would float, but without her putting any...

Thanks, I hadn't even realised that. Hopefully they will, especially if these results have contributed worthwhile new evidence. Obviously it's quite hard for most of us to evaluate it, without an understanding of how a phenomenon like this might vary anyway between healthy patients and...

For me, one of the interesting things about the study is that measuring flow-mediated dilation using ultrasound doesn't look enormously challenging or expensive to carry out. If the professionals think these results are genuinely interesting, it might be within the scope of an ME charity to fund...

As I understand it, immunoadsorption is a way of removing specific types of molecule from the blood. I'm not sure which conditions it's most used in or what the evidence is of its effectiveness, though.

The only relationship I've managed to uncover between PEM and active heart rate shows up when I'm in the "PEM gap". This is where I've incurred some significant PEM but it isn't yet obvious, meaning I can make the mistake of doing activity I'm not really fit for. My heart rate doesn't increase...

I look forward to him being the last human on Twitter, sitting there shouting helplessly into the void.

I wonder, though, if decisions on requiring those numbers might partly be influenced by the fact that you can get them because the conditions are so common? And that they put at risk the lives and wellbeing of such large swathes of the population that it's easier to prioritise big funding pots...

To me emotion exertion often means something a bit different, though it would be hard to communicate quickly in two or three words, so it would always be open to misinterpretation in a short article. The type that I struggle most with is the mix of emotional and social energy needed to engage...

But but but where are most of these gaps in the labour force? Health care, social care, delivery drivers, hospitality, warehouse workers, and in the growing season, agriculture. All involve demanding physical work, in environments where employees tend to be pushed hard for every moment of their...

That's really good news, @josepdelafuente, and should be a huge help. Just having someone on your side is immensely reassuring, even if in the event they don't have to do a great deal. I hope it goes well!

Yes, I think I might wait to hear what a group of trained healthcare professionals says when they're sent to work in a ward of infectious patients without protection because "Pffft, masks don't work anyway".

Really sorry to hear you're having such a rubbish time. There are probably two recoveries, really, your hip and the ME crash. If the hip's doing okay and you're able to keep it mobile—even if you can't do all the exercises—then that's really positive for the longer term. If and when you're able...

Oh, you can get a postdoc fellowship at a prestigious institution by doing diligent science and publishing what you find, instead of over-hyped, under-evidenced flummery. Should someone tell psychology? (Seriously: congratulations, Joshua, and thank you, and good luck.)

This is a really good point. It is interesting to compare how a female GP operating alone, who set out (even if misguidedly) to offer genuine support to ME patients is treated, compared to those in the "right" clubs, who're predominantly male. Investigations into her practice long precede the...

I'd never leave mine plugged in, but I do have the chair with lead brick batteries on a timer if I'm not using it much. Lead batteries can degrade quite quickly if you don't use them; mine get topped up every 14 days if the chair hasn't been used, but that's probably more frequent than is really...

I wonder if another element in the disappearance of the broadly accepted concept of convalescence was the change of culture in hospitals, when it was realised that keeping post-infectious and post-operative people on strict bed rest (as nurses had been trained to do for decades) often wasn't...

No, not at all. I've no knowledge of actual hearings, only of helping someone prepare for one by doing what you're already done. B&W contributors may be able to help you through the tribunal prep and understanding what will happen on the day. I guess it's still possible that the judge and/or...

They probably won't be needing three trials of it for people with PEM—I doubt they'll find anyone daft enough to try it more than once.

What you've been eating, how recently you've eaten, and whether or not you have a UTI can apparently shift the acid balance a little (or so my nurse told me!), so if you're worried it would be worth repeating the test another time. As levels can fluctuate naturally, the doctor might not be too...