Tuesday 28 May 2013

Perrin technique review - one year on

So the roller coaster rolls on and this week has been a good one.  I had a Perrin appointment on Tuesday and recovered well from that.  It has been a busy week and I've coped well, even had two FIR saunas this week.
I have been having Perrin technique treatments for a year now and Before  this weeks appointment I filled out two questionnaires.  The same questionnaires I filled out a year ago when I started treatment.  One of them was just a simple list of symptoms and you tick any of the symptoms that you have experienced in the last week.   I ticked away and was very pleased when I was told that a year ago I had ticked 19 of those boxes and this week I had ticked only 9.  A great improvement, 50%  less symptoms than this time last year.  The second questionnaire takes a little more annalysis, so I don't know how I've scored on that one yet.
 The question is, how much of that improvement is down to Perrin?  Not an easy one to answer.  I haven't been doing any other "treatments" this year, I continue to take Dr Myhills supplements (some of them in slightly less numbers) and doing a weekly floor based yoga class, which always makes me feel good.  I have followed the Perrin regime consistently. Other than days when i'm going to have a proper treatment, there has probably been only two days in the last year that Ant hasn't dutifully massaged my back in the morning.  There have been days when I've maybe only done two further head massages and back twist routines rather than three, but in general we have followed the routine strictly.  I feel it's Perrin that has made the difference.   It's difficult to remember back to before I started treatment but when I think about my activity levels now I know they are so much more improved.  Yesterday, other than sitting down for meals, I didn't sit down to relax until 8pm.  I had been gardening and hanging washing, driving and cooking, a few sits at the computer, but pretty busy all day.  Before Perrin just one of those activities would have forced me to sit down.  I must remember to build in relaxation time though, it's not good to have days like that.  I can feel an internal agitation in my system this morning that tells me my body's not happy.  I probably need to make an appointment to see my cranial osteopath this week.  I still have bad days as my blog will confer, but they are fewer and farther between now and I do think it is Perrin technique that has made the difference.

Sunday 19 May 2013

Weary weekend

Just when I think things are going well, my body likes to show that actually it's still in control of this situation.  At least three times last week different people asked me how I was doing and I replied with a really enthusiastic "really well", very well in fact. I felt good at the start of the week but when I woke up on Friday morning I knew that my body was fatigued.  It was a struggle to get up on Friday, but I perked up a bit as the day went on.   Saturday morning was just the same, I was drained.  I had a night out planned on Saturday for a friends 50th birthday celebration and it wasn't looking good for that.  So, soon after 12pm I took myself off to bed and didn't get up until 4pm in the hope of giving myself a little boost.  The sleep was strange, for the first half of it I couldn't tell if I had slept or not.  It was like my dream was about going to sleep and I couldn't tell if I had really slept or just thought about it.  A bit disorientating.  I did feel a little better when I got up and we did make it out for our meal in the evening.
Today things are still not right and it's such a shame because today or tomorrow I am going to fill out my Perrin questionnaire (the same one I completed when i started my treatment so we can do a comparison).  If I'd filled it out on Thursday I think it would have been excellent, but now it is going to be blighted by the past three days.
There's no one activity that I can think of that has led to this little blip, but my general activity levels have been up this month. I know that my average daily step count for May is 6500 and it's normally around 5000, so it could just be an accumulation of this increase in activity.

Wednesday 15 May 2013

Fasting day

On Wednesday I tried a fasting day - that's restricting calorie intake to 500 calories for the day.  It was strange.  I didn't have a problem with hunger at all.  I had a late breakfast at about 11.30am (yoghurt, blueberries and ham) and then my evening meal at 6.30pm (tuna steak with grilled courgette and red pepper- very tasty) and even though I was hungry and ready for the meal finishing the whole plate was quite hard.  What I did have a problem with however was how I felt.  I had a headache from pretty early on.  Not a nasty headache just a nagging little headache.  It can't be caffeine withdrawal as I haven't had tea, coffee or chocolate for three and a half years now.  It could have been sugar withdrawal though!  I also felt a bit light headed and just a bit weird.  I felt weak and lethargic.  When Ant came home and we talked about it we decided that my body probably isn't ready for such shock tactics just yet.  I still had the headache when I woke the following morning but it disappeared quickly, the weakness however stayed with me for most of the day and I had an early night.
Something I forgot to mention last week was that we took a family trip to the cinema to watch Iron Man 3.  It's funny how certain things happen that trigger thoughts of your condition and to me this simple trip to the cinema was a great boost.  In the car on the way home it struck me just how LOUD and FULL ON the film had been, especially the closing battle.  There was a time a while back where my body just couldn't have tolerated such aural and visual stresses, I wouldn't have even contemplated going to the cinema to see such a film, I used to have to leave the room if the children were watching anything slightly stressy on our little tv!  But this week I went without giving it a thought and didn't have to walk out.  It was a good marker of improvement.

Wednesday 8 May 2013

The 5:2 Fast Diet


So, I've finally got my act together to try and raise some money for F.O.R.M.E. the Perrin charity currently trying to raise money for research around diagnosis of ME.  I've asked the school if they will do a textile collection.  I had to write a letter to the school council which decides what charities the school will support.  My little one also put in a little hand written note about how M.E. effects his mum.
I took Ben for a cycle ride on Friday, he'd been asking for a while and it was a beautiful day so off we went with snacks and water for our.....3 mile trek.  Doesn't sound far for a bike ride does it, but actually it was probably a little further than I should have gone.  I was shattered when I got back and had that horrible wobbly internal agitation feeling that I'm used to as a signal I've overdone it, but I recovered.  By Sunday I had a new sensation in my thighs, they were actually sore, not aching, but properly sore as I walked.  This is a result of deconditioning, not a symptom of the M.E., a sign of small muscle fibre damage because they are not used to such activity.
Yesterday I emailed Dr Michael Mosley one of the co-authors of "The Fast Diet" the official 5:2 diet where you eat well for 5 days and then reduce your calories for 2 days.  I am particularly interested in the passage on fasting and repair genes. When you fast your body starts a process called Autophagy, a process where the body breaks down and recycles old and tired cells.  He describes it as the equivalent of taking your body along to the cellular equivalent of a garage.  I wonder whether there is any potential health benefit here for me.  I know that things at a cellular level aren't working properly and wonder whether there might be any benefit to the methylation cycle by trying the 5:2 diet.  Hope I get a reply.
As it's ME awareness month here is a link to one of my Fitbit pals blog posts about how ME affects her.