It's a virus, no it's M.E., it's a virus, no, it's just M.E. (is M.E. a virus?)

Oh dear me, I do seem to repeat the same questions over and over in my head.
Last night my throat got really sore, worse than usual.  I have a sore throat every night and any time I'm especially crashed or tired....it's just part and parcel to my version of M.E.

In fact, because I am very heavy on the immune side of M.E., sometimes it's two or three days having a cold virus, before I know it's actually not "just M.E.".  The following list is case in point:

Symptoms                   M.E.                 Cold Virus

Sore throat                   yes                    yes
achy/fluey                     yes                    yes
low grade fever             sometimes        sometimes
weak and tired               always             yes
painful lymph nodes      yes                   maybe


Do you see my dilemma?

So I woke up this morning and my throat was a bit better.....I thought, just M.E. but now I'm thinking "maybe it's a cold" again.

Which of course means that in my case at least, M.E. either is a virus, or partly an immune problem.  And even my regular Dr's have said as much with my frequent low white blood count and swollen glands.

Otherwise, I have nothing new to report.  Life itself has been a whirlwind of drama and emotion the last six months.  Not anything I can write about here.  I feel like the worst of that has peaked at least for a while.  My good friend N. came up over Easter weekend and it was my roommate/friend's birthday.  Overall we had a really nice time.  I definitely pushed a little too hard with the visiting and cake baking and fun which I have crashed from (perhaps this explains the viral symptoms).  But it's one of those times where I am quite happy to have overdone it a little.

A couple weeks ago my roommate took me to see "ice out" on the lake.  The funny part is we were too early.  The bay was still frozen solid, someone was even driving on it.  It was a warm day, warm enough for me to relax on an old peer and just soak in the warm sun.


But the ice that had frozen in chunks on the shore was disintegrating, doing what's often called "candling".  It's something you have to see (and feel) to believe.  The ice breaks up in millions of tiny little cylinders.  I'm posting some photos of it.

And also a photo of the dog running wildly on the ice for Je.  You know why :)

my ears help me run faster

Ice out?  I think not!

candling ice, you can see the tiny cylindrical pieces

candling ice

Orange lichen on the old peer and a fish house (for ice fishing)

enjoying the sun