Shift.ms

by Gav

“What exactly is fatigue?” the occupational therapist asked and me and my three fellow cohorts. In my head I thought to myself “isn’t that what you’re supposed to be telling us?”

There was an awkward pause before one of my fellow participants offered her comment on the subject, she remarked that she hadn’t even heard of fatigue before and that she was confused one the whole subject.

I should probably at this point explain where we were and what we were doing. I’d received a letter through the post a couple of weeks prior informing me that I was going on a fatigue management course at Croydon’s neuro-rehab centre, as part of my ongoing therapy post my huge relapse back in the summer of 2011. I was already aware of what fatigue was, but I figured hey, I’ve not heard of a fatigue management course before, and I could learn a thing or two.

It turns out, that of the four of us there, three of us had MS, and one had suffered a stroke. I’d never met these people before and I was just hoping to have the opportunity to meet someone else with MS, and although you never wish for someone else to have MS, it does at least provide a familiar starting point.

At this point, I offered my interpretation of what fatigue meant to me with my MS:

“It’s a bit like when you’ve charged up batteries for a remote controlled car, and as you use the car more, the energy it has to do stuff reduces, and consequently so does the cars speed.”

The other people seemed to agree with my definition of fatigue, and the fact that I ‘revealed’ what had brought me to the group so casually, as if it wasn’t anything to be embarrassed or ashamed about, certainly seemed to help the others relax. It was then, after my comment, that the others felt able to ‘come out’ of the MS closet, and discuss the thing that had brought them there also.

The rest of the session proceeded with us getting handouts on the fatigue cycle, along with a ‘fatigue timetable’ each, for us to fill in over the rest of the week, documenting our fatigue levels, with which I imagine the Fatigue King and/or Queen being crowned at the end of the four week course with a speedboat for a prize.

I look forward to seeing what the rest of the course brings over the coming weeks. I did start filling in one of my fatigue timetables, but I only got as far as 1pm before, ironically enough, I got too fatigued and went to sleep. I think I need some more of that Tiger Blood Charlie Sheen was banging on about last year.

What now?

• Leave your thoughts about fatigue below
• Questions about fatigue? Let us know and we’ll try to get them answered by an expert!
• Check out Gav’s handywork on our Youtube channel: he’s the playlist guru!