Peter T
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
'Post-exertion symptom complex' or 'post-exertion symptom exacerbation', maybe, but I'm not sure that renaming this symptom is where our efforts ought to go.
I agree with Sasha in that I don't feel particularly uncomfortable with the term 'malaise', though for me it has the physical connotations only and not the general psychological connotations that it has for some people and in the dictionary. For me PEM can involve the exacerbation of specific symptoms and/or generally feeling 'yucky', which for my personal associations of the word malaise allow it to fit fairly well.
I would see the exacerbation of symptoms as the most important factor as it can involve a range of symptoms eg impaired cognitive functioning and/or pain and/or fatigue and/or feeling ill.
There is variation in the symptoms exacerbated following exertion, over time within a single episode (eg today unfortunately being forced to go out twice immediate result was cognitive impairment and attention problems, then tiredness and sleep now headache and a blocked nose and poor balance, then tomorrow maybe pain in the limbs) and between episodes (eg on Friday my primary response was tiredness and needing lots of sleep, over 12 hours, whereas today at present my primary response seems to be feeling unwell, feeling like the onset of a head cold) (Note am dealing with potentially end stage renal failure in a cat, so lots of visits to the vet's which is why there is repeated excessive exertion.)
This in turn is set against the variation in my underlying condition, as PEM requires less 'exertion' when overal my ME is more marked. Further PEM can be cumulative, my PEM today is worse than my PEM last Friday, partly because of last week's excessive exertion.
I suspect there is also considerable variation in the symptomatology and subjective experience of PEM between different people with ME.
Given all this, finding the right word or phrase will be difficult, and of all the alternatives I have heard so far only Sasha's 'post-exertion symptom exacerbation' for me more or less fits the bill.