May 9

Ignore THIS at your own risk

Another MECFS poem today. This is about the symptoms that are my clues that something is amiss that I must respond to. Pushing through any of this will cause the PEM that I talked about before. My doctor calls these the canary in the coal mine symptoms, or the symptoms that sit just below the surface on an iceberg of symptoms. Whichever picture you choose, it’s time to stop and get out of there when they appear.

Ignore THIS at your own risk

THIS could be
A buzzing in my head
Lump in my throat
Fog descending
To hover over
My thoughts and words
So I can no more count
Than fly
Could be a racing heart
Prickly hot skin
Yawning so big
I fear for my jaw
THIS symptom sits
Just below the surface
Of my illness iceberg
And when it appears
above the churning
of the sea I swim in
I MUST STOP
Ignoring any of THIS
each ‘canary in the coal mine’ symptom
Will cause a world of pain
Lie down now
You may not push through

A blue painting for MECS of Sarah with her head in her hands.

Everyone with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (MECFS) has different symptoms that are their private STOP signal and it takes a while to figure out what they are and even longer to obey them… 11 years and counting apparently!