Anyone else who gets PEM struggle to know how much is PEM and how much is coming down with another virus?

[Steadilyd]

I should have got my head around this by now (31/2 years), but haven’t.

Now I’m mostly housebound and don’t really mix with that many people, I am better able to manage my energy levels and also much less likely to catch viruses so don’t crash hard very often.
I track my activity which helps identify high energy days, and my PEM hits about 24 hours later so I build in a rest day after a busy day.
That reduces the severity of PEM when it hits.
I’m also a lot more forthright about asking for a seat, or leaning against something when I need to stand, or needing to go home when I hit my limit.
I’ve had 7 years to get used to it though.

Me!
Last week had what I assumed was a bad reaction to my flu jab but actually thinking about it I'd massively overdone things the previous week so likely was it just picked that day to kick me.
I use the Visible app which does really help with pacing/ensuring I take rests but sometimes there's no choice but to push through.

I’m mainly housebound now, but have children in primary school. I do try to build in rest time. We had a meeting at school and I pushed through and had a shower too. I miss my life!! What do you use to track activity?

@Steadilyd I use Visible but used to have a Fitbit.

Thanks. Do you use the free version or paid version?

Free, but keep meaning to sort out the paid version, especially now they’ve brought out a wrist band instead of the arm band tracker.

I've got the paid version, happy to PM you a link for £15 discount if you'd like.
It's been worth every penny for me - proved to my GP I wasn't just anxious and actually had POTS! Sometimes it alerts me when I'm overexerting and I flick Vs at my phone and carry on but it really does know best

I think both are true - when you live with PEM and are fighting off a virus, your energy envelope shrinks and your window for activity without triggering PEM gets much smaller. It makes sense when you think the body is diverting resources to the fight the virus.

The free version of rhe visible app is brilliant for monitoring PEM. Rest as much as possible, eat nutritiously and keep your fluids up.

Give yourself double the time to recover from activities right now