What are you up to today if you have a chronic illness? Thread 7

[MewithME]

Last thread 🧵

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5490534-thread-6-good-griefwhat-are-you-up-to-today-if-you-have-chronic-illness

Fill up last one first 😁

If you want to talk cataracts, @TeaAndStrumpets I'm your woman. I had both done in late 2024 and it's a revelation!

We managed an escape room and dinner out! I’m now on the sofa with heat packs and pain killers, but it was worth it. Tomorrow I’ve got spine and pelvis mri in the afternoon, it’s on a van and the winds will be 50 miles an hour. I’m wondering what that will be like. I’m hoping we can have a short walk in the morning.

Oh great! Thanks I'm pleased you can recommend.

I have gone private due to the long waiting list here. The consultant told me he was intending to give me the standard long sight lenses so I had to jump in requesting a - 2.5 dioptre prescription. I think he'd assumed I wanted the old lady special! How wrong he was.

I am looking forward to not needing glasses for close work. I don't mind wearing them for the rest.

Blimey I hope it's not too distracting! I haven't looked at a forecast but it sounds like it's going to be the usual Bank Holiday weather.....hope you manage a walk.

@TeaAndStrumpets yes, it’s Storm Dave this weekend. Mostly yellow warnings of wind according to the met office

Oh thanks, I've not been paying attention. Sounds a bit brisk!

My lovely surgeon said if he made the incision in a particular place, he could improve my astigmatism. And he did! By loads!
I still wear varifocals, but a hugely reduced prescription ( by about 75%) and can manage without quite happily, except for close work.
And colours!!! Who knew colours were so bright and blue!

Ha ha yes I'll have to wait until afterwards to choose my bathroom tiles!

I have permanent dents from wearing glasses all day, so some lighter lenses will be a massive improvement. Your surgeon does sound lovely.

Morning all

Hope everyone gets some good rest this weekend. on no @TeaAndStrumpets hope to feel better soon. @FurForksSake that sounds very fun. Sometimes it is worth the pain!

I feel like I’m just emerging from PEM fog/hell. It’s nice to get a bit of respite. We decided to postpone our weekend away until next month as I was too unwell.

Typically feeling much better today and have committed to taking my dd swimming, where she swims and I sort of paddle. Hoping that gentle movement will be good for joints etc.

I suppose it is a good thing I have her to get me out of bed!

Your last point is very true. Having someone to care for (human or pet!) is very rewarding, and gives a better perspective on things.

I think sometimes with PEM it is difficult to comprehend how ill we have been until we are starting to feel a bit better. Everything is such a struggle but we soldier on, then as we get through it can clearly see what caused the crash - hindsight is a wonderful thing! Good idea to postpone your trip for now, you can give yourself a reserve of energy.

Yeah absolutely.

Sometimes I also gaslight myself into wondering if it is all in my head. And then I have a ‘normal’ feeling day like today and realise I do actually like being active so I haven’t just been making it up so that I can be lazy (horrible way to think I know).

Thanks and hope you can regain some energy soon too.

Morning all.

Interesting reading about people's cataract surgery experience - it seems to run in my family so I expect it at some point. I've worn glasses for about 25 years and it'd be nice to have a break from them. I did get contacts a few years ago but didn't love them and tended to only wear them for exercise.

Had more weird, busy but sort of self-explanatory dreams last night 😴 I had a 4 on Visible this morning and felt ok for the first couple of hours of being up but then suddenly queasy and tired so have come back to bed. Got a friend supposed to be popping round at some point over the long weekend but not sure when yet.

Do be careful if you’re in a yellow zone. Mind you, sometimes the weather says it’s bad and it isn’t really

https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings#?date=2026-04-04

Morning all. I got to mum's in the end. Now laying in the spare room absolutely exhausted. Tinnitus is bad. Got the internal buzzing and crawling feeling.

It's lovely to see my Mum but it's very tiring. She is a talker. She won't let any gaps in conversation happen so I find I have to take myself off regularly for some quiet. I can't manage otherwise.

I've resigned myself to the fact that the whole two weeks leave I've taken is going to be resting to manage the trip, the trip itself and then getting over the trip.... hopefully in time for going back to work. MEcfs makes everyone take too long. Timescales are impossible. Can't fit life in anymore... Everyone is either/or not both.

Anyway, I made it.

Hope everyone has battened down the hatches for blink Dave and you enjoy some Easter treats.

@MewithMEim glad you made it safely. Sounds like you have good plans for managing as best you can.

For me vivid dreams are usually associated with rushes of adrenaline, then I wake up with a pounding heart and it's often a raised heart rate for the rest of the day. Any overstimulation eg scary movie or too much socialising gives me troubled sleep.
I've had glasses for years and wore contact lenses until I had my first baby, who never slept! My eyes were so tired and bleary I couldn't face putting lenses in every morning.

Glad to hear you made it safely @MewithME

Another slow day planned here. My legs still haven't forgiven me for all the walking I did on Tuesday, seriously having to admit that adventures like that may require power assistance. Our local NT property has motorised wheelchairs you can borrow, so I might have to bite the bullet and give it a try. It's quite a mind shift though ...

Anyway, have been pottering in the garden this morning and have potted on some tomatoes seedlings. DH is finally going to prune the bay tree so that will be good. I have checked and there are no nests in it 🐦

Have a restful day all, sun's just peaking through here although storm Dave is due late afternoon. Need to get the bay down before then 🤣

I’m in the yellow zone and not a gust of wind so far

The forecast has it going from 20mph to 45mph very quickly and starting in two hours. But it’s so calm here, a tad bit breezy but no sense of a storm coming at all.

There's definitely an element of that with the dreams - recently the content has been definitely my brain dealing with certain things - one about a particular past relationship the other night, last night's was about something I usually do but can't do at the moment - actually sort of funny looking back. I was playing in a concert but all the instruments and music stands were made out of kitchen foil instead of metal and kept crumpling up!

Also in the yellow weather warning zone but today is much calmer than yesterday so far.

How disconcerting! (Sorry!) There is a metaphor in there somewhere I'm sure.

I’ve just checked and it supposedly doesn’t start until 5pm onwards for me so maybe the same for you?

Yes looks like it is 6pm here. I do love a wee stormy evening.

😂To be fair, my stamina is so bad at the moment, me attempting a concert probably would feel like that!

Just popped out to tuck the garden chairs away before it get windy - had a proper look and it's due to get up to about 50mph in a few hours. Obviously my neighbours would have chosen the same moment to go outside as I did (in my dressing gown and ridiculously messy hair).

Watching g a ids film, bad boys 2 and then probably sleeping off dialysis