Reply to all: Managed to get the soup on the table Sunday night. Had a lovely weekend with a family visit today. I took the advice of others and didn't wait on them like I usually try to do. Somehow it just worked out fine... Too many cooks spoil the broth, I don't think so.... Sounds like overall we all managed to eat healthy and rest up for the week ahead.

@Dot your sympathetic nervous system will definitely ramp up the longer you're upright. My heart rate rises steadily and I start sweating and overheating. It's good cause it keeps you from passing out, but your body can only sustain that for so long

@artist55 Ha, you didn't sound grumpy. Maybe a bit frustrated, but what else can you be? Time you had a LOT of kindness. Good luck with your next steps to deal with your illness. I'm hoping to see you continue on this site (when you have some enough energy ofcourse).

@Daffy_Dave Thanks, Dave! He sure is a cheeky duck! Lucky has 'Snowball' a little white rooster and a fat red hen 'little red' for company now!

I would have to say keeping a medical diary of my symptoms and current medications. It helps me a lot during my medical appointments to keep track and remember and also makes it easier to record on centrelink papers my symptoms and what I have tried as I have my diary as a reference.

Hello, Ian, pleased to meet you!

@iris Thankyou ! That was an interesting read and I have bookmarked it to share with the exercise physiologist.

@crashdummy thanks for your excellent comments. This was not the recent news about Medicare, it is old news that I have just found out about. I'm not aware of the media covering it

@crashdummy lucky indeed

@iris this is in the You+ME app where there is a predefined list of symptoms you can select from and you rate each symptom from 0-4 every day (or on whatever schedule you choose) so I don't think that's an option. You can add your own symptoms, but I'm trying to avoid doing that as much as possible to keep the data clean.

@iris Fantastic. I will be doing the same.

Hi, Mary Rose, Please to meet you!

Hi @salty - we don't name health providers on the forums - too much of a legal quagmire in terms of the potential for it to be seen as recommended by (or criticised by, depending no the type of reference, but that's clearly not relevant to your post ) Emerge. I've removed the name from your post, but strongly encourage you to PM Fee with their name

Microdose abilify has by far been the most effective treatment for speeding up my PEM. What used to take me 48 to 72hrs to recover from only takes 12hrs or no PEM from that activity. I still get bad PEM but it takes a lot more activity now to trigger it. Before abilify I would rapidly fatigue from speaking or laughter and would sometimes need to text or whisper during crashes. Strangely and awesomely I can talk normally during crashes now. (Please be aware that therapeutic (normal) dose abilify is associated with serious side effects and hasn't been studied yet.)

Just letting @river know that there's now a "COVID-19 related discussions" category in the non-public discussion area - thanks for the suggestion, and if you have any other thoughts (or anyone else does) please don't hesitate to mention them

So tricky! A runny nose was/is the main thing that tells me it is a cold or flu, rather than PEM. I don't sneeze with PEM either. I got to a point where I made life so small I had only slight symptoms, then I can look back a day or two and see when I have over exerted myself, that is the likely cause for PEM symptoms. PS A year ago I had a bad run with mucous running down the back of my throat and a tickly cough that got worse and worse. Not covid. Turned out to be dust mite allergy.

Much sympathy @river , always frustrating. I very much hope you can rest through it relatively quickly, but understand it's not something that can be rushed. Vent very appropriate!