Artemisia
Senior Member
- Messages
- 286
For the past year or two, I've had scheduled rest periods where I lie down for an hour. Sometimes I rest before working in the morning, sometimes it'll be early afternoon. While resting, I start to feel MUCH worse. It's like the PEM "catches" up to me and I feel a full-on crash.
But I force myself to get up to try and work at my computer. After a half hour or so, the PEM subsides and I can function enough to work. (The same happens even when I have multiple rest periods a day, or at different times.)
What's behind this? Am I just running on stress hormones constantly, like cortisol and adrenaline? And the rest periods allow them to subside, so I experience the full effects of PEM? And when I get up to work again, I'm once more fueled by stress hormones to "suppress" the PEM?
This is especially worrying because I have to work to support myself. I have no one to help me physically or financially, no employer or government support (I live in the US, and don't even have health insurance). I fear this cycle will eventually nudge me into severe ME to where I can no longer work at all. This is so scary but I don't know what else to do.
Background info: I'm moderate ME/CFS, toward the milder end of moderate. I work from home online. I'm about 80% homebound. I've had ME/CFS 13 years and am a 43 year old woman. I constantly have to push myself to work enough to pay bills, go to the grocery store 2-3 times a month, and prepare very simple food (meals are often milk and fruit because I have no energy for more). I'm overweight and have typical high cortisol midsection weight gain that started when I first got sick, despite eating only whole foods and experimenting with all sorts of thyroid and endocrine protocols. I do take a low dose of thyroid (NDT) and I need more, but I have trouble tolerating it.
But I force myself to get up to try and work at my computer. After a half hour or so, the PEM subsides and I can function enough to work. (The same happens even when I have multiple rest periods a day, or at different times.)
What's behind this? Am I just running on stress hormones constantly, like cortisol and adrenaline? And the rest periods allow them to subside, so I experience the full effects of PEM? And when I get up to work again, I'm once more fueled by stress hormones to "suppress" the PEM?
This is especially worrying because I have to work to support myself. I have no one to help me physically or financially, no employer or government support (I live in the US, and don't even have health insurance). I fear this cycle will eventually nudge me into severe ME to where I can no longer work at all. This is so scary but I don't know what else to do.
Background info: I'm moderate ME/CFS, toward the milder end of moderate. I work from home online. I'm about 80% homebound. I've had ME/CFS 13 years and am a 43 year old woman. I constantly have to push myself to work enough to pay bills, go to the grocery store 2-3 times a month, and prepare very simple food (meals are often milk and fruit because I have no energy for more). I'm overweight and have typical high cortisol midsection weight gain that started when I first got sick, despite eating only whole foods and experimenting with all sorts of thyroid and endocrine protocols. I do take a low dose of thyroid (NDT) and I need more, but I have trouble tolerating it.