15% never tasted so bad

Just wanted to let you all know i just received a 85% dark chocolate bar and let me tell you, stick with the 70% GREEN & BLACK'S ORGANIC as this 85% one tastes like crap. To put it mildly. The fact that they only had it in "Extra bitter" might have something to do with it...

I doubt that 15% could make that much of a difference and even if it does, just eat more of the 70% one then.

Yuck.

List of treatment/medication added

Just thought i'd let you know that i have now added a list called "Treatment/Medication" of all the medication etc that i am taking, to the sidebar on the right.

Hopefully someone will find something in there and have some use for it.

Later.

Chocolate CAN be good for you?

Based on the eledged postitive findings of a pilot study to test the theory that a daily portion of dark high percentage chocolate reduces the effects of fatigue (Chocolate 'can be good for you', York Press, 3 October 2007) over at Hull Royal Infirmary, i set out to try for myself despite the criticism found here - http://listserv.nodak.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0710a&L=co-cure&T=0&O=D&P=2655

Yesterday evening, a "DARK 70% GREEN & BLACK's ORGANIC" dark chocolate bar reached me. I have since realised the study included a 85% dark choco bar, but the only 85% dark choco bar that mom could find was not organic and therefore not an option. And hey, could a 15% difference really add up to all that much in terms of result? Well, since yesterday i've had a few small pieces and will continue to consume it for the eight weeks the study lasted and report back to you as time passes.

I don't really expect any postive results but hey, it's a health-reason to eat chocolate for cryin' out loud :-)

On another subject, i plan on adding all the medication i take to the sidebar to the right of the Blog under my symptoms later on this evening. Maybe my progress, especially in regards to my pain as well as general improvement in fatigue compared to 2 years ago, can help someone else this far gone in ME out there. Obviously i have a looong way to go as i'm still bed-bound, but it's progress nonetheless and very noticeable at that. I used to not even be able to use a urination bottle by myself. It was that bad and i'm grateful for the improvement since then to say the least, despite the fact that my progress still hasn't gotten me out of this bed. Yet.

Take care.

Labels

Hi again,

thought i'd mention that i've added so-called "labels" to my Blog, which allow you readers to quickly search for Blog entries filtering them by what i have labeled the specific entries with. For example, for an easier read, i have labeled all Blog entries containing fragments of my ME story, with "My story". Clicking that label way down to the right in the label section, should lead you directly to the entries containing said fragments.

As shown below, the numbers next to the label words indicate how many Blog entries there are with that particular label.

Apartment (2)
Colds (1)
Diagnose (1)
Exercise (1)
Healthcare (3)
LSS (2)
My story (3)
Research (1)
Symptoms (1)

Later, bedtime for me (pun intended).

Hit and miss

Well, been more then a week or so since my last entry. Would like to write more but it's hard. Have had many emails to write and frankly, it's depleted my energy depot.

I told mom she needed to make them understand our situation VERY clearly if i was ever to be taken seriously by the LSS people in my quest for an apartment as clearly, for some reason, they weren't taking me seriously. Guess they figured i was just another cranky youth wanting to move away from mommy, despite them knowing what my situation is. Sheesh. After mom having made that call, last week, mom received a phonecall from the head of the LSS people regarding there being a possible apartment for me - an [by Swedish standards] 3 room and kitchen apartment. What that referrs to exactly is two bedrooms, one livingroom and then of course the kitchen. However, what would be more ideal for me is one really big bedroom instead of two smaller ones, one smaller livingroom and one kitchen. That is due to the fact that the electrically adjustable hospital bed [and the need to push the desk that holds my computer, over the bed] creates the need for a lot of room to maneuver in. But hey, at this point i aint' exactly picky so i was pretty excited nonetheless. That is, until she called again today [as well as emailed me directly, which is something i try to get as many people i deal with to do as possible instead of letting my mom become some kind of middleman] to let us know the details of the apartment.

First of all, the apartment was located on the groundfloor/story of the building which is a big no-no as if the apartment gets broken into (which seem to happen a lot with groundfloor apartments in not just the particular area this apartment was located in but overall) i wouldn't exactly be able to defend myself to well. Secondly, it wasn't a handicapp-adjusted apartment, but she assured mom that they would handicapp-adjust whatever apartment i ended up in later on. Good, now they're catching on. Better late then never. The other thing was that, as if the monthly rent wasn't high enough, the electrical bill wasn't included in the stated monthly. Not exactly ideal for a 23 year old with sick-pension living on what the Swedish government states as being the very minimum that a person should have to support him/herself with.

However, the LSS-head (as i'll call her from here on out) stated that there were indeed a possible two other apartments, this time two 2 room and kitchen apartments with a lower rent and in the same location as the first one. Sounds promising, but i dare not keep my hopes up regarding these matters, not any more. I've learnt to expect the worst, to be less disappointed later. It's sad but something my journey has shaped me into doing.

Until next time, take care of yourselves and i'll try to do the same.

Balancing upon a fine line

Just added a list of my symptoms on the sidebar to the right.

Lately i've been straining myself way above the guidelines i've set up for myself and what's good for me and have been skipping my exercise schedule due to many things. Mostly i've had less energy to spare due to the unstable situation at home as well as an increased usage of the computer. I really need to take control of this again as that exercise schedule is most likely a huge part of why i've made it this far in the first place, balancing the fact that exercise actually makes my symptoms and overall condition much worse and the fact that some parts of my body need the exercise not to deteriate as well as to avoid muscle atrophy. It's a fine line and like i mentioned, the reason why i've made it this far is most likely a large part due to the fact that i've found a really great system - something that healthcare should've provided me with me with a long time ago, but all i received was disbelief and misguided [and sometimes very physically abusive] cognitive treatments. Which is why my condition was allowed to become as severe as it has. If there ever were any chance of me just "resting" this away, it's long gone now. Long gone. With ME/CFS it is Crucial to get diagnosed as early in as possible to avoid having the patient going through what i had to, severly damaging the rehabilitation process. Problem is, as ME/CFS still isn't taken completely seriously by doctors, even if you do get diagnosed early, that doesn't automatically mean you'll get help. Sad but true.

Later.

Interesting research update

Hey guys, just thought i'd sneak this in, something very interesting that i found a link to.

http://www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm?id=8337&T=CFIDS_FM&B1=EM091907C

As it's widely known, ME/CFS seem to have different causing/triggering factors from induvidual to induvidual but if these research findings can be verified etc, this could mean they've found a possible causing factor for what could be the majority of us as i figure it. What's not to forget, is that we've been trough this before though. Many times. So whenever a new research find is publsihed, i always take it with a grain of salt and wait to see what becomes of it. I remember earlier on in my illness, as soon as someone even hinted at there being a possible "cure" or new research finding that would most likely lead to one, i always got all riled up - seeing me just walking out of there out into health and being able to take my life back. Well, that was a long time ago and i now know better. I've come to rely only on myself for the "cure", which has been to listen to my body when it clearly shows me what it needs as well as a cocktail of high doses of Q-10 amongst others. I'll go into that a bit later though.

I never did that you see, listen to my body that is. I got in to the whole gym scene at 14 - wanting to become a body builder a bit to young perhaps, working out hard 5 days a week for up to 4 hours a day, not quite understanding that my body needed rest as well. It was about from the time i was 14 that i started having these continuous colds that ended up lasting a lot longer then what i was normally used to. Most likely, that period of extreme strain on my body, triggered all of this. But triggered what? I almost died in a herpes infection breakout when i was two years old and my life apparently hung on a thin thread. They had apparently never seen a case that bad in Sweden to that date and documented me into their files for research purposes i am told. Obviously i made it through, but every time i get a cold, i also get the oral herpes blisters on my tongue and sores on the edges of either side of my mouth. Sometimes it feels like the herpes is/was behind it all and was keeping my immune system so strained, coupled with my extreme physical exercise, that it eventually lead to this.


Speaking (typing?) of colds - also, as this below article touches upon, getting a cold is one of your worst enemies when you have ME/CFS as it often leads to a relapse and ruins what little progress you've achieved in your journey to what is hopefully better health. Some good reading, check it out.

http://www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm/ID/8367

I have no illusions of me being able to keep up with all the current and future ME related research and posting it in this Blog, but i will however post any findings i might come across if interesting enough. There are plenty of places like the ones that are represented in the link section up to your right that fill that need a hell of a lot better then i ever could :-)


Later.