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  1. Michelle

    Questionnaires that can differentiate depression from chronic symptoms

    This may be violating the "no politics" rule so I understand if it gets deleted but I do think the union movement needs to think beyond trades and work. There is solidarity to be had in more situations than just labor. And there are a whole lot of us who are excluded from labor for one reason or...
  2. Michelle

    Questionnaires that can differentiate depression from chronic symptoms

    Lenny Jason probably came up with the best "screening" tool to distinguish depression from chronic illness: simply ask a patient "if you felt well tomorrow, what would you do?" Someone who is depressed is almost invariably going to shrug and mumble something like "I dunno." Someone with a...
  3. Michelle

    Thesis System and methods to determine ME/CFS & Long Covid disease severity using wearable sensor & survey data, 2023, Sun

    I don't think cost is the problem. My Tri-Axis pedometer, which seems to be more accurate than, say, a FitBit, is only about $25. I wear it clipped to my underwear 24/7, except when I'm bathing/showering. The one I've got now has lasted me since 2018. The only ongoing cost has been a 2032...
  4. Michelle

    Thesis System and methods to determine ME/CFS & Long Covid disease severity using wearable sensor & survey data, 2023, Sun

    I don't disagree with any of this but, to be fair to @sarahtyson, she might say the same thing about us. She might argue that we were dismissive of the technological and institutional infrastructure challenges that she outlined in this post in the 20 years she said she had been trying to...
  5. Michelle

    Thesis System and methods to determine ME/CFS & Long Covid disease severity using wearable sensor & survey data, 2023, Sun

    I have severe ME/CFS and for the most part, step count variations can be pretty significant when you go from 600 to 50 (and vice versa). What's been interesting is that over much of the last year, I've been having an inexplicable improvement. I'm still pretty damn severe (completely homebound...
  6. Michelle

    Dopesick - The opioid crisis in the USA

    As an American, I wanted to add a little nuance to the discussion. If we want to make, say, the Sacklers the scapegoat villains in all this, better them than the usual marginalized people imho. That said, I can understand why they might be a little confused about why they are being singled out...
  7. Michelle

    "I thought I should always be positive with my patients – until I found out how damaging that can be", article by palliative care doctor

    And THAT is why we have BPS medicine: to give providers a way to not have to deal with the discomfort that comes when they can't actually do much for their patients (which, unfortunately, is more often than we'd like to think it is). Instead of teaching providers how to manage those very real...
  8. Michelle

    Menopause and ME - what's your experience?

    Thanks for sharing your experience. It's one of those things that because we don't understand the mechanism of action in ME/CFS, it's been difficult for me to know if it's related to that or if it's something else entirely. I'll talk to my PCP/GP about MCAS. Alas, I cannot take NSAIDS as I'm...
  9. Michelle

    The doctors treating long Covid with HRT

    Can't help but grimly chuckle where the doctor at the end of the piece has to scold women about not eating sweets and making sure to get 7 hours of sleep at night. As if I have any f***ing control over how much sleep I get at this point...:banghead::arghh::cry: That said, given my own...
  10. Michelle

    Menopause and ME - what's your experience?

    I'm perimenopausal and my answer to the poll so far would be one that's not available: both. I started having late/missed periods in 2019. After my first missed periods in November and December 2019, I had a few weeks of functioning better than I had in several years. My IBS that began just...
  11. Michelle

    UK:ME Association funds research for a new clinical assessment toolkit in NHS ME/CFS specialist services, 2023

    Oh also I should note that I'm not as concerned necessarily with the term "psychometric." My understanding is that it simply means a way of measuring in psychology. While I've not seen specifically what psychometric tests are being used for this study, the psychometric testing I had when I was...
  12. Michelle

    UK:ME Association funds research for a new clinical assessment toolkit in NHS ME/CFS specialist services, 2023

    @sarahtyson I too want to welcome you to the forum. While we can be a pedantic, curmudgeonly bunch, we're all about the science at the end of the day--which is what it sounds like you're all about too! :):thumbup: While wearables are not perfect or purely objective, they certainly can provide...
  13. Michelle

    Review Neuroimaging characteristics of ME/CFS: a systematic review. Shan et al. 2020

    Thanks, @SNT Gatchaman . That's helpful. Are WMHs the same as the so-called "Unidentified Bright Objects" that pwME have been seeing in MRIs for the last 40 years? The UBOs have always sounded like they were simply incidental findings whereas the WMHs sound, perhaps, more significant. I can...
  14. Michelle

    Review Neuroimaging characteristics of ME/CFS: a systematic review. Shan et al. 2020

    Please forgive my my layperson's ignorance, but did you mean WMH are CSF/fluid spaces? In the radiologist's report on my MRI, he stated that my WMH were what he thought would be consistent with sequalae of chronic migraines or the beginning of chronic small vessel ischemic disease. And when I...
  15. Michelle

    Review Neuroimaging characteristics of ME/CFS: a systematic review. Shan et al. 2020

    I'm not sure if this is the correct thread in which to ask this, but @SNT Gatchaman's post yesterday reminded me of this thread and that I wondered if, with these studies of reduced perfusion in pwME, other patients are seeing things like White Matter Hyperintensities in MRIs. I just had an...
  16. Michelle

    Long Covid in the media and social media 2023

    Democracy Now!: The Long Haul: Millions with COVID Face Chronic Illness as Biden Declares End to National Emergency Not the best segment I've seen on Long Covid and ME/CFS (he describes the name ME literally, implying that it really is about brain and spinal chord inflammation). But he does...
  17. Michelle

    The putative glymphatic signature of chronic fatigue syndrome: A new view on the disease pathogenesis and therapy, 2018, Wostyn et al

    Well...whenever I'm really badly off, I always crave Enya. Or certain Tibetan Singing Bowls. I've never really known what to make of that. Though I have sometimes wondered if certain frequencies have some sort of effect on whatever mechanism of action is going on in a crash. Can't say the...
  18. Michelle

    Ordeals and the Empathy Gap

    Indeed. It took forever for someone at SSA to explain that to me. Initially they told me they thought I was eligible for additional benefits--which sounded batshit crazy as SSA is always trying to find ways to limit benefits. And, of course, had I turned out to be eligible, I would not have...
  19. Michelle

    Ordeals and the Empathy Gap

    Oh absolutely! Every time I see an envelope in the mail from SSA, my stomach reflexively clenches. And I've probably just been very lucky in not getting picked for a full assessment.
  20. Michelle

    Ordeals and the Empathy Gap

    I'm on SSI and it's been hit or miss. I've never in the twenty years since I was approved had a full medical review. I usually just get the short form that asks about 5 questions (i.e. have you improved? has your doctor said you can work? etc.) and a response a few months later saying they don't...
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