ME Question time

Brain and nerves
1

I found this, if anyone is interested.

An ME 'Question Time' – an opportunity to ask questions about what's happening in the world of this most controversial illness – will be held in Colchester on Saturday, October 11.

Colchester ME Self-Help Group is linking up with national charity, the ME Association, to field a panel of top speakers who will discuss ME, otherwise known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, at Colchester High School for Girls, starting at 2pm.

\"Doctors are becoming more sympathetic – but there are still far too many sufferers round the country who come to us at their wit's end because their doctor says they don't believe in ME and just want to dish out anti-depressants\", said an ME Association spokesman.

\"Both the World Health Organisation and the Department of Health recognise that ME is a neurological disease. And, month by month, more evidence comes to light that shows there are physical causes to the illness, which can keep children out of school for months or years and force adults out of jobs they enjoy.\"

Consultant neurologist Dr Abhijit Chauduri, from the Queen's Hospital, Romford, Essex, and former headteacher Jane Colby, who is executive director of the Young ME Sufferers Trust at Ingatestone, near Chelmsord, will be joined on the platform by ME Association top guns – chairman Neil Riley and medical adviser Dr Charles Shepherd, who is author of a top-selling self-help guide called 'Living with ME'.

Registered dietitian Judith Harding will also join the panel to explain how many of Britain's 240,000 sufferers can be helped on the road to recovery through taking care with what they eat and drink.

Colin Mills, from Colchester ME Self-Help Group, commented: \"There are some wonderful GPs round here, so by no means is this area an ME 'black hole', but there is still room for improvement.

\"However, there's still no diagnostic test, no proven cure, and a a lot that patients don't know about what makes them feel so dreadful so much of the time. Everybody's welcome to this meeting, which will update sufferers, their families and carers on developments in medicine, therapy, research and education.\"

Questions to all the panellists will be welcome. If participants don't want to put the question themselves during the meeting, just tell any helper in the room before it starts.

Admission to the meeting will be free, and it is expected to last until about 4.30pm. Both the Colchester group and the national charity will have display stands, and refreshments will be available.

2

I get the M.E 's association magazine and it was advertised. I find anything like that id always down south. Thanks anyway Alicia

ps how's the tooth ache

3

Let's just say I am glad I didn't leave it any longer to go, but I am not looking forward to it.

My car has toothache too. It is going to the car dentist on Thursday :roll:

4

None of us seem to have any luck at the minute. :goodluck: :goodluck: :goodluck: :goodluck: :goodluck: :goodluck: :goodluck: :goodluck: I hope this brings us all some luch

5

That sounds really interesting 8) Shame it is so far away.

How did you manage to type all that, Alicia? :shock:

Thanx for the luck LouLou, I could do with some :wink:

Dale xxx

6

Copy and paste, my dear, copy and paste :wink:

7

aw, id really have liked to go to that but will still be in cornwall. mind you, the way im feeling now i dont think a jaunt to colchester would've been possible :roll:

maybe they'll have one in london soon

Trees x

ps i'm trying to imagine what a CFS convention is like. do you think they have mats on the floor where people can just lie down if it all gets too much? :D

8

You are so technical, Alicia :towel: (It says the icon is a towel but I picked it cos it looks like a degree scroll! )

Trees, probably no-one will turn up cos they are too tired :zzz:

Only someone with ME can do ME jokes :twisted: I don't want to offend anyone :oops:

Dale xxx

9

no you're completely right dale - i was thinking, is this going to offend someone? then thought, no i CAN make that joke cos i have it! :D and id probably be the one having a snooze on the mat, so it's probably quite true! :roll:

and, as we've always said, you've got to be able to take the mick out of yourself and this horrid disease, otherwise it gets too much.

just think of endless bad jokes we could make up about a CFS/ME convention! :twisted:

Trees x

10

Trees, you and me are on the same wavelength. The minute my sense of humour goes I know its time to pack in. :lol:

Dale xxx

11

I told you about the ME support group I have found didn't I? Well when I was chatting on the phone to Patricia who runs it she says that one woman who comes just lies on the sofa for the whole 2 hours but she says it is a different sofa in a different house and it gives her a different 4 walls to look at. Bless her. sad

12

Thanks for that information Alicia ..... it would be interesting to find out how it goes and what is discussed.

I went to an afternoon's convention organised by the Sussex and Kent ME Organisation last September. Dr David Shepherd was the main speaker, and I have to say, I was terribly disappointed in him (hope he doesn't read this :oops: ). He spoke for ages in a sort of sing-song voice, but so rapidly that I couldn't take in half of what he was saying ..... others felt the same too. There were a couple of other speakers who were equally uninteresting, one a GP who spoke so technically about the illness we were all left behind.

Also the room was far too brightly lit, was too cold and the sound system kept making screeching noises which sliced right through me :weird:

Apart from two in mobility scooters, everyone else in the audience looked normal and, surprisingly I was the only one in dark glasses.

I left before the end (as did several others) because I was in a lot of pain that day, and took several days to recover from it. It would have been far more beneficial for me to have had my usual afternoon sleep :zzz: