I've had to give up the gym, sigh, I was hoping I could just stick at it since it made me feel so good, but in all honesty, I never had the energy to actually attend so it was a money sink and well... I couldn't keep up with it. Just feels like another notch against me, having to drop something else I once enjoyed.
A friend of mine who also suffers with ME/CFS has been incredibly helpful in the past couple of weeks. I'm suffering more than usual with aches and pains and something she's recommended me trying is crutches... now I'm open to suggestions of any treatment and help, but something that visibly shows a disability is a little daunting. My knees ache something awful, especially if I've used them... or even if I haven't - they seem to just be blocks of pain. I also might be entitled to some financial help from the government? When really sick I applied for DLA, but was declined after they didn't even read my form that I had sent off to them describing my sickness, so went purely off my atos assessment, oh joy. (That was over a year ago, and something I've got a draft waiting on as it's so tough to write about). Anyway, apparently because I work 16 hours a week, I might be entitled to ESA which I think is being changed to PIP (Personal Independence Payment). Which would give me a little extra money a week... kind of to make up for my lack of ability to work more.
I'm looking at applying for it, but I'm worried because of my medical history in regards to turning down treatment. (Something else I need to post about) but to sum it up, I refused hospital therapy, which was basically CBT and teaching people how to pace and stuff. The trek to the hospital itself was absolutely exhausting, I still have all my information from my previous CBT sessions and know how to pace. I didn't see the point in taking up a space that someone else (who hasn't had past experience with those therapies) could use. I'm also not currently on antidepressants as I felt they made me more nauseous and headachy than usual if I missed one, which I did often thanks to brain fog. They also left me in an even more zombie like state than before taking them... so decided to just drop them too. So I think applying for something like PIP will probably result in a rejection as it appears I'm "hindering" myself and not "trying to get better" or something stupid like that. I don't know.
I wonder if any of my readers who are similarly-abled, use crutches or other aids?
Need to go to bed now, I've been more exhausted from this weekend because it's been my partners birthday and we've also seen relatives, so spending most of my day in bed at the moment. *sigh*
