PEM: Swimming compared to other activities?

Lane swimming = zero kids and zero noise! Beautifully antisocial, in fact, nobody stops for long enough to talk. There's a maximum of five in a lane, and most people use the right lane for their pace and will pause at the wall to let slightly faster swimmers pass. All very polite and organised.

You're deaf anyway, as your ears full of water. There's apparently a buzzer that sounds at the end of a session or when they're about to change the pool depth – trouble is that the only person who can hear it is The Lady With The Perm, who swims along with her head stuck up out of the water to preserve her curls.

Admit it's a bit on the damp side, though...

 

Doesn't sound like anything I remember

 

I used to love swimming and went at least twice if not three times a week before getting sick.

Even in the early stages, when my ME was at It's mildest, swimming completely wiped me out. Getting out of the pool my legs woukd barely hold me up and I was left feeling so weak that dressing was a struggle.

Before ME, after about 7 lengths of a 25 metre pool, my body would stiffen, my breathing didn't want to synchronise & it generally felt like trying to swim uphill but, if I kept a steady pace and didn't try to push too hard, by length 9 or 10 suddenly I was in the zone. My muscles loosened, my breathing synchronised and I'd happily do another 40 lengths. I rarely wanted to get out of the pool but gave myself a strict time limit. Once that elapsed I had to get out.

After ME, that stage where the breathing wouldn't synch and the muscles felt tight and movement uncoordinated started sooner (if memory serves). No matter what tactic I took, I never got through that stage, it just got worse.

I tried slowing down, I tried breast stroke, forward crawl, back stroke - made no difference. I tried taking breathers at the end of each length.

Knowing nothing about PEM apart from to.leave myself at least 3 days of rest between each activity & convinced it was a matter of finding the right technique or approach I tried to get back to swimming on a number of occasions since getting sick. Nope.

Such a shame, I really miss it.

 

I can not swim anymore without PEM. I could when I had moderate to mild grade, no I have moderate to severe and uses wheelchair outside the house.
But it does give me a relief from OI being in water , if the water is not too cold or warm. I freeze easily and with to warm water the blood flows to easily. And the best thing is in a lake, with silence around me, but living east in Norway, the water is almost always too cold.

But it is easier taking some swim strokes than taking an shower. At summertime when at vacation in our caravan it feels like a dream to wade of too chest depth and washing my hair. I guess it is easier in the lake than in the shower because of the pressure of the water making OI much better.

But no, no swimming or bathing in lake or pools without PEM .

A year ago I joined the kids and my hubby for some hours in a small water park(indoors) , one thing was the sound. But I joined them in the wave pool, it was really fun. During the night I had to go to the loo, but when I tried to stand, my legs where paralyzed from my hips down for several minutes. I had PEM for two months after, symptoms in whole my body, brain fog and all.