@Maryanne @Dot Thank you for your kind thoughts. We got through the week and although our hearts are sore, healing has begun. Easier lessons have been planned for this week. It’s back to sketching and drawing for the students so that there are no paints and pots of water and buckets of brushes to wash etc. I feel so guilty - poor kids Wishing everyone heaps of spoons and plenty of sunshine for everything you have planned for the coming week! ️

@crashdummy Yum, you can’t beat fruit straight off a tree especially if it hasn’t been sprayed etc. And I haven’t eaten a decent apricot for years. The ones in the shops don’t come near it. Looking forward to a photo. Sounds like it’s a tree with lots of character that’s weathered the test of time.

Hi @Antimony totally ok, not even a stumble really, it can take a little bit of plodding around to get used to the forum and find what you're looking for, the search icon at the top of the screen is really helpful to find threads on a particular topic.

@gretch Hee Hee .... if you try the recipe, just don't place the casserole dish in the dishwasher ... that would give a whole new meaning to poaching eggs! ...

@donnamarie said in Creative Corner!: What you need to do Paper tole 3D cards Book of Background papers Border and corner stickers, Happy Birthday stickers etc Blank cards and envelopes Stick on jewels or gems Glue and or double-sided tape to stick on your picture to the card Mounting tape and or square or round mounting foam tabs for laying paper tole 3D picture Rubber mat Crafting knife Metal ruler For a 3D or paper tole picture cut out bits with craft knife and then layer starting with the full picture and ending with the smallest piece of the picture. You layer using the foam tabs or cut off bits of mounting tape and then either glue and or use double sided tape to stick your picture to the card. I like to use a background paper selected from a folder of suitable background papers and then embellish with border stickers or corner borders and a Happy Birthday sticker. You can get all sorts in stickers – Christmas, Easter, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Wedding, and Engagement Some paper tole pictures come as push out ones that you don’t have to cut out with a craft knife. Generally, they are slightly more expensive. You can also buy kits set up for 3 cards with instructions costing around $15. Happy Card making. You are only limited by your imagination. For supplies, contact the companies online that I posted up earlier under this topic that do postal orders. @crashdummy said in Creative Corner!: @gretch I just think these pendants are wonderful. The possibilities are endless with clay. I haven't used air dried clay before but I can imagine that there would be a time limit to using the clay as you make each piece. Perhaps a marble slab as a working top can help keep the clay cool while working it and also provide a good cutting top. I'm looking forward to more creations of these beautiful objects.... Thanks Donna.

@passiflora said in New to the forum: Looking forward to comparing some management techniques/life hacks! I love that description - life hack

L - has to be 'Lazy' - Deep Purple 1972 - Machine Head Album - Great album! Great Era! Great Band!

@Daffy_Dave I would just like to add that I know the feels! HRM stuff is super overwhelming - OR IS IT JUST MY BRAIN? it has been on my list for a few years now, and for some reason when I look at the Facebook group for it there is so much reading prep that I get overwhelmed, can't make it through, and don't get very far lol. !

@Kalinda What an ordeal ... yes, you would think the process would be a lot easier and the equipment more user friendly, especially with todays' technologies. I had a similar saga with a heart monitor halter and I think I was given a well used out of date version.... I got better results from my fitbit watch! .... The process also involved pick up and drop off ... such a chore when we all know that there are better ways to do this ... One would think that PEM would mean such exhaustion that sleep would be deep and refreshing but for me it is the opposite . I either fall unconscious from extreme PEM and end up in hospital or I spend the entire PEM period unable to achieve any regular sleep pattern. Getting a block of sleep of 4hrs is usually the first indication that I am moving out of PEM and into a more stable functioning level. I do believe that I am better being the master of my own sleep process and management. I am aware that some people may need machines for other disorders such as sleep apnea and I don't know what I would do If I suffered this as well ... just another example of the broadness of trying to manage sleep whilst living with ME/CFS ... At least you went through the process to help you get some clarification and explored it even if it was under such duress.

Hey Glimmer, yeah everyone is different, so it's good to know what works for someone in case it matches up somehow and can help.

Thanks Darryl. You are good at communicating techniques. Yes, it is that pumping out of everything in my lungs that seems to help. I think being so sedentary means my lungs don't get the chance to do it often enough. (I really love seeing something so funny on TV that I laugh long and loud, I think that helps wonderfully too!)

@coco Sorry slow reply here, I lost the login details for the forum and haven't had spoons to sort it out. I kept a journal while starting ldn and found it really important. I have a very rubbish memory (brain fog) which was made all the more so by more sick feeling days with side effects. Also it's a really slow process increasing incrementally so I could never remember when i changed dose etc. I just used a notebook and wrote the date and recorded whatever applied on the day: -side effects or unusual issues level of usual ME symptoms (compared to usual), pain levels (eg "head exploding" "all the headaches making me nauseated" " agony"), which painkillers I took and when and how much, what time I took the LDN (some people find it affects sleep patterns) and dose of course, sleep disturbances (i dreaded night terrors which i'm prone to anyway), time i went to sleep and woke, whether i napped in the day, any exceptional activity etc eg going to supermarket which i've rarely been able to do in over a year - this is when I realised LDN might be helping... then crashed! Sorry that sounds like a long list but it really wasn't too hard. Basically I found it simpler to just freehand it and note what seemed important on each day, rather than having a form or spreadsheet, found it less cognitively demanding than trying to fit things into imposed scales etc. But i expect this is really an individual preference, maybe having a proforma checklist is less demanding for others. At the very least make sure you keep note of dose you take each day. I also found knowing the time of day taken and sleep (or bedbound if not sleep) hours useful.

@Long-Haul-Mono Excellent water tricks. Cheers for keeping on top of it. Yes, I probably get half my water intake from hot cuppas and soup. I find a brothy soup, like miso, so full of electrolytes, the most hydrating of all. Also, hello everyone! Gorgeous day in Melbourne yesterday... cold again today! Sigh. But the blossom says warmer weather is coming.

@coco said in Nice guidelines out soon: @iris I appreciate you sharing this and I appreciate emerge's statement. Does anyone know if Emerge has communicated it's response to NICE directly? We didn’t send our statement to NICE directly, because we’ve been conscious of following the lead of the UK organisations, which is what they asked us to do. We have signed the open letter to NICE, along with many clinicians, researchers and other ME/CFS organisations from around the world. https://www.virology.ws/2021/09/15/trial-by-error-an-updated-letter-to-the-nice-chief-executive-about-the-unpublished-me-cfs-guideline/

@JustChilling Yay! Someone else with a pressure cooker! Mine is a stove top one so it doesn't have the slowcooker option, but I use it all the time! Well, I should say them. I have a tiny little one and a big 6 litre one. Stews, curries, bean dishes. And same, cooking up batches to stock my fridge and freezers so making meals is easy for a while. I couldn't do without pressure cooking

Great pic @gretch and Snowball looks very cute @donnamarie I hope everyone is muddling along as best as possible

@Looch No shame in the occasional blooper I find my brain sometimes substitutes what I want to type with another word entirely (often seemingly unrelated!) Great to hear your specialist is familiar with the NCNED's work - and best of luck with your LDN - I very much hope it helps (I have heard of stories of almost-full recovery - they're very rare, but fingers and toes crossed that's what happens with you ) I've popped up an LDN thread here: https://community.emerge.org.au/topic/197/low-dose-naltrexone-ldn-for-me-cfs for all that are interested.

Admin popping in to say : contacting each other and sharing details is allowable but please keep identifying details out of the public parts of the forum We also don't have any oversight on who anybody is at all beyond seeing a valid email address and a username.. so do please bear that in mind. We don't *think * there's a liability issue for the forum owner if you sort it all out yourselves behind the scenes but be aware that we are flagging there is some potential risk in sharing addresses and real names. School teacher hat off again now! Connection is what we're here for and chat is enabled for exactly this kind of reason

Grateful again for this forums off and away from social media platforms. Thank you Emerge!! And thank you to all contributors. In other news, I am really thankful for the ~$7ish 'Pull Chopper' I bought from kmart recently. Cuts my work in about 4 and I've ben able to up my veggies intake (in the form of salads mostly) with less hassle, work, spoons and clean up. Thanks kmart!

@river said in Housebound BY CFS.: @Siren maybe we need a section of the forum specifically for NOT thinking about illness... Distractions and fun stuff. That's what the Water Cooler area is for, maybe we need a thread there for things like cute animal photos, etc? Good plan