Relapses are made of this…

Anyone with ME knows that relapses are a fact of life. I should have seen it coming, the gradual increase of fuzziness in my head a warning sign, but optimism always wins and two weeks of feeling better (if not exactly ‘normal’) had led me astray.

Yesterday began almost as usual, except for feeling tired as I unzipped the mosquito net. The dizziness began unperceived, until at a certain moment I felt as if I’d tried walking around wearing a pair of half-inch thick glasses belonging to a myopic friend. From there I began to wonder if I’d been practicing my whirling dervish act for too long, and after a short phone call at around 10 am I had to give in and lie down.

I call these “lost days” – the days when I remain horizontal the whole day. If I’m lucky I can read a little. Mostly I sleep until the feeling of two bottles of wine too many along with a blow to the back of the head with a blunt instrument has begun to wear off, leaving me with a simple headache and low-grade fever.