little miss reverse

A journey from ME/CFS to health using Reverse Therapy and Lightning Process

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Milestone

Yesterday I did half a days work at a primary school as a teaching assistant. It is almost 4 years since I last worked! This is a major milestone in my recovery.

This time last year, I was able to spend about 4 hours with my boyfriend twice a week, go to college for about 2 hours and maybe have a friend over for a cuppa one afternoon for an hour or two. That was my maximum. I had to rest every day and only do things that involved going out of the house on alternate days. I needed whole rest days inbetween things. My sleep was still very unstable and I was on medication for that. I couldn't walk very far at all and my stamina was low for anything physical. I could only drive on days where I felt really well, for about 15 mins.

In 12 months, my life now is unrecognisable! I can walk, swim, dance without post excertional malaise (wow! that was a big improvement), stay out late, do things on consecutive days, do 2 or 3 things in 1 day, I don't need regular rests and if I do need a rest 20 mins - 1 hour usually sorts me out. My memory is getting better, I am able to concentrate for several hours at a time now and I can drive for about an hour and a half. My flare ups, which still happen are much less intense, I don't get most of the symptoms I used to get, it's mostly tension and fatigue. Flare ups slow me down rather than stopping me these days and are usually in response to some emotional event, or not listening to bodymind.

I'm still way off full recovery and have a LOT of stamina still to build up. I couldn't go back to a regular week in, week out job yet as I still have my ups and downs. BUT, I'm able to do some, which is fantastic!

I'm pretty tired after yesterday, but I was ready to go back in today until the job got cancelled. From what I remember, you always get tired when you start a new job anyway, so as long as I keep listening to my bodymind, I think I will be able to manage. I intend to do a maximum of 3 mornings or afternoons a week for the time being, until I can cope with it standing on my head.

Wonder what the next big milestone will be??? I'm pretty excited about life at the moment.