A woman pushing a huge boulder up a hill is a metaphor that can illustrate the challenges and struggles of living with rolling PEM. The woman represents someone with ME/CFS who has to deal with constant fatigue and pain. The boulder represents the burden of PEM that weighs them down and makes every movement difficult. The hill represents the unpredictability and variability of PEM that makes it hard to plan ahead and cope with changing symptoms. The image can also convey the sense of frustration and hopelessness that some people with ME/CFS may feel when they face rolling PEM.

How I Escaped the Horror of Rolling PEM

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Hello, and welcome to my blog. In this series, I want to share my experience with rolling PEM, how I overcame it, and how my quality of life improved.

If you are unfamiliar with the term, PEM stands for post-exertional malaise, a core symptom of ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome). It is a severe worsening of symptoms after physical or mental activity exceeding one’s energy limits. Rolling PEM is when you don’t recover fully after each day or crash, and the PEM accumulates gradually over time. This accumulation of PEM means you get progressively worse over months or years as you fail to recover entirely from each incidence of overactivity. [1]How Hannah Finally, Finally Learned How to Pace – and How it Helped. https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2021/03/04/hannah-pacing-heart-rate-monitoring-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/ Accessed 3/23/2023.

A woman pushing a huge boulder up a hill is a metaphor that can illustrate the challenges and struggles of living with rolling PEM. The woman represents someone with ME/CFS who has to deal with constant fatigue and pain. The boulder represents the burden of PEM that weighs them down and makes every movement difficult. The hill represents the unpredictability and variability of PEM that makes it hard to plan ahead and cope with changing symptoms. The image can also convey the sense of frustration and hopelessness that some people with ME/CFS may feel when they face rolling PEM.
A woman pushing a huge boulder up a hill is a metaphor that can illustrate the challenges and struggles of living with rolling PEM. The woman represents someone with ME/CFS who has to deal with constant fatigue and pain. The boulder represents the burden of PEM that weighs them down and makes every movement difficult. The hill represents the unpredictability and variability of PEM that makes it hard to plan ahead and cope with changing symptoms. The image can also convey the sense of frustration and hopelessness that some people with ME/CFS may feel when they face rolling PEM.

I know how devastating rolling PEM can be because I experienced it myself. In these blog posts, I will tell you how I got into rolling PEM and what it did to my health and well-being (part 1). I will share how I managed to get out of rolling PEM with the help of pacing, heart rate monitoring, and other strategies (part 2). I will also share with you how my quality of life improved after breaking the cycle of rolling PEM and what I learned from this journey (part 3).

I want to inspire and encourage others struggling with rolling PEM or ME/CFS by sharing my story. Raising awareness about this condition can hopefully contribute to more research, support, and recognition for people with ME/CFS.

So, let’s get started!

You can find the other parts of this series at these links:

References

References
↑1 How Hannah Finally, Finally Learned How to Pace – and How it Helped. https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2021/03/04/hannah-pacing-heart-rate-monitoring-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/ Accessed 3/23/2023.
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1 thought on “How I Escaped the Horror of Rolling PEM”

  1. Pingback: Rolling PEM: What It Is and How to Avoid It - Ticked Off Codess

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