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PEM just baffles me. There are frequent minor exceptions, where for no obvious reason PEM doesn't match up to effort expended. I've come to expect that, but a handful of times a year there are aberrations that seem to defy all logic. I had one four weeks ago. Usually, when I'm able to swim, I...

I think it depends (as always!) on what you mean by 'fitness'. I too can build muscle in my shoulders, arms and core when ME allows me to swim – to the extent that people notice the increased shoulder tone, and I'm aware of being able to turn over and sit up in bed more easily. (I can't do the...

That's why I added 'in addition to'. I think questionnaires need to put more emphasis on the accumulation of daily or weekly activities than they do on specific types of activity. Otherwise, it can appear that people are able to do more than they really can, due to the fact that they may...

There's all that, plus judgement. Whether it's judging how to go through a door frame without colliding with it, how to phrase a sentence without offending, how hot the food on your plate might be, how long you might be able to continue standing up before your legs go, how much money you need to...

The more I read, the more I'm coming to the conclusion that the best way to estimate physical and mental fatigue levels in these studies might be to ask a short series of simple questions about general function before the illness, and then again afterwards. At least for adults, a picture of the...

Excellent news! Hopefully there'll be more once it's being recruited through GPs, as some people aren't big users of social media, some may hesitate until they see that the study is being promoted via trusted NHS practitioners, and some may prefer to receive the information in their own...

No, at the same time. They're different drugs – paracetamol doesn't have the side-effects of potentially raising the risk of bleeding, gastric irritation, and aggravation of asthma. ETA: Of course, it's always best to check with your doctor first, and if it's a bit of an emergency (such as...

And if he really knew anything about ME – let alone grammatical logic – he'd understand that increasing a baseline is a contradiction in terms. People can't improve their fitness to any significant degree. It's literally part of the definition of ME.

When I was going through a phase of almost constant pain from frequent hip subluxations, my GP suggested I take paracetamol and ibuprofen together. It was a mixed type of pain, and the mix of different meds did help quite a bit. I don't know whether it might be indicated for your pain type...

I hope you'll consider anonymously tweeting some of your spectacular turns of phrase in the direction of Sir Simon Himself, @rvallee – if nothing else, it would really cheer up some of the ME folk who're reading his recantations open mouthed and incoherent! :laugh:

My thoughts exactly. Only with a different word at the end of the sentence.

Dr Pope's response is worrying, as we can't know whether or not Long Covid shares features with ME until the underlying processes have been elucidated. Doctors developing firm opinions without any solid evidence is the last thing patients need.

In the sense that I can't achieve clarity and direction in my thinking and writing, then definitely yes. It's due to fatigue. I was never good at brevity, but the more fatigued I am, the longer the paragraphs get. I often have to write a 500-word post in reply to something on here; then fathom...

It would certainly be useful to study responses to extracellular ATP in detail, if it's possible to do so. It sounds like a really interesting area of research – at least to those of us who don't know enough to understand it!

They can be, but usually aren't – so don't worry too much. They will remove them if they're causing problems. I've had large ones removed from my wrists, as there's a lot of important anatomy there; had they got too big, they could not only have interfered with movement, but also been...

Just seen that BBC File on 4 has a programme tonight at 8pm called The Long Road to Recovery. (I don't know whether it's based on the recent webinar with the same title.) It'll be available on BBC Sounds after broadcast.

The difficulty is going to be that some of the sequelae are difficult to treat, and that – for the specific symptoms that clearly indicate an ME response to the virus – we already know the best treatment. Learn how not to make it worse, and understand that most doctors' advice is likely to be...

Sleep initiation typically takes between two and five hours. I don't know what Z drugs are either, but I never take sleep meds anyway. The drugs I do need for sleep are painkillers. 80% of my pain occurs when lying down, and it's one of the reasons I have difficulty with sleep initiation (the...

Root canals are done because the pulp inside the tooth is infected, usually with bacteria. They're best done sooner rather than later, as it gives the best chance of saving the tooth and it's easier to get rid of the infection. I've had numerous ones. I think they're actually less unpleasant...

Interesting, we do have different problems with hips and shoulders. Hips sublux, in my case so often that I had a physio train up friends to shove them back in. They would never self-right, and if I left them 'out' I'd get sciatica because the muscles went into spasm. We seem to sublux less...