sustained upturn

I continue to be improved.  I would say maybe 5% overall, perhaps a little more.  The main improvement is with both energy and sustainability.  What I mean by sustainability, is I can do more without crashing, and my crashes are shorter.  While in the disability scale 5% is not a lot, it is enough that I'm not complaining...honestly, I'll take it!

I also notice a burden being lifted mentally and emotionally.  With a little ease-up in the sick realm, I am also coping better with life in general.

Why am I improved?  Honestly, I am hesitant to say it, but I think it must be in part a result of the high dose B12.  I have been giving myself B12 shots now for maybe a month or just a little more and the improvement coincided almost exactly with the start of the B12 (beginning a week or so after).

I also speculate, and I may be grasping at straws here, the increased Vitamin D and sunlight.  From the start of the spring I have been spending more time outside.  Sometimes just in my chair, but also short walks around the gardens or even sitting and weeding.

So while I have cancelled 3 trips to my old stomping grounds in the last 2 years due to health, I finally bit the bullet and came!!!   My old stomping grounds is where I lived and worked the 6 years in Minnesota prior to getting the Mono and subsequent M.E./CFS.  I was a wilderness guide here, also working a little at the local college teaching physical education (outdoor) classes.

Because I live between three and four hours away, and many of my friends were here, I used to get back a few times a year.  Then I started getting worse. I have had trouble making the trip even as a passenger.  As well, many of my friends that lived here have moved on.

Last week, my friend N came up to visit.  It had been two years since we'd seen each other in person. On a bit of a whim, I took the risk to come home with her.  The journey was tough (just a ride in the car, maybe 4 hrs). I was in tears by the end.  But after a day and 1/2 resting, I popped back up to my status quo.  And now she is out in the woods so I've mostly just been doing what I do at home - resting in bed.

Resting....except instead of traffic, neighbour dogs barking, roommate noise, I hear the wind through the aspen and the birds.  It is so peaceful.

I have pushed a little too hard, though....I get here and people want to see me.  And they just don't understand chronic illness from inside a "well" body.  I think it's just too far from reality.  They don't realize that for me, just sitting up for more than a short period comes with consequences (and because it hits a day or so later they don't get the joy of seeing the consequences).

Still, I'm glad I came, and I'm preparing mentally in case I have a crash from the trip...but I'm also crossing my fingers that the crash is non-existent, or at least short.  I'm hoping this improvement in resilience continues.

I'm posting a few photos - me and N's dog, a nearby lake (there are lakes everywhere here), a frog I saw, and the road where I'm staying.....