Eye of the tiger
Woohoo! Hear me roar!!
Yes folks, brace yourself for something truly outstanding. Are you sitting down? Are you ready for my massive revelation? Okay, here goes:
… I had a shower.
I know, I know. Impressive right?!
Context
Okay, here’s a little context: I’ve been crashing since last Friday, after having an absolute blast at Clip n Climb with my son last Thursday.
(That’s right. I did something super fun a week ago, and my health has been a mess ever since. This is life with ME.)
I started feeling on the road to recovery yesterday, so thought I’d change O’s bedsheets and have a shower while he was at school. Seems reasonable, right?
… wrong.
After I’d changed the bedsheets, I felt utterly destroyed and had to rest so I’d have enough strength to do the school run.
Reality
This is the reality that not many people realise about ME; in the privacy of our homes, we’re constantly making decisions like ‘shall I do X today, or have a shower instead?’ Even when ‘X’ is crappy household chores like changing bed sheets; ME doesn’t care whether the activity is fun or mundane. It’s always there, lurking … ready to pounce whenever it fancies.
As such, my shower had to wait (again), until today. And now that I’ve finally had it, it feels soooooo good to not be such a massive minger anymore. Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t been a whole week since I last washed – but let’s just say there has only been two showers in the last week, including today’s.
I have spent much of the rest of the time just trying to survive the day, and resting in bed at every opportunity.
Worth it
I might still be suffering the payback, but it was so worth it. I had theeee bestest Mummy and O day last week. I feel like I don’t get anywhere near as much quality time with my baby as I would like (I know he’s not TECHNICALLY a baby … but he’ll always be my baby).
And obviously nothing screams ‘quality time’ like climbing walls and dangling from ropes together. I always was a bit of a ‘go hard or go home’ kinda girl before getting sick. Ya know, before my body decided to ‘go home’ at every opportunity for the last 8 years.
It was a long overdue fun (and highly adrenaline-fuelled!) day out. Sucks that I’ve been dying on my arse and met pigs with better hygiene than me since. But hey, I’m still here. And as of today’s most amazing shower … the other mums on the school run won’t smell me coming. Score!
Side note
Side note: we do spend most of our quality time doing much lower energy activities at home, which are equally as precious to me. It’s not about the activity – it’s about the time spent together. We just wanted to shake things up last week. I knew the risks, and decided to do it anyway. As usual, it was a potentially ridiculous decision for someone with ME/POTS to make, and I fully support anyone in a similar situation who would not wish to take the same risk. But it’s down to individual choice; I have zero regrets.
… Aside from anything else, I needed to know if I still had the balls to throw myself to the mercy of the rope after climbing to the top of the wall. Lots of jokes were made about ‘Mummy pooping her pants.’ Thankfully, Mummy didn’t poop her pants. Probably farted a bit, but otherwise everything remained intact!
