Elaine Albertson's Blog

Thursday 20 Feb 2025 The past seven weeks have been the most challenging of my life...and I don’t say t hat lightly. I have myalgic encephalomyelitis...ME. Big time, according to the docs. It’s a new name for an old condition, chronic fatigue syndrome combined with all the worst aspects of PTSD. Look it up. ICD is G93.32. That condition caused me to “retire” from my volunteer work at the Command/General Staff level of Team Rubicon two years ago. I still have a strong internal drive to be doing something to help others; over five decades of my working life, much of it has been listening to, helping, and stand with complete strangers on the very worst day of their life. The past several weeks have made it crystal clear that a relatively small group are engaging in a coup. Yes, that’s what it is, by ANY existing valid definition. My point is this. More and more folks are finally “getting it” and resisting in ways they hadn’t even thought of until now. ...

  Friday 7 February 2025 1600 hrs – Kekaha Town, Kaua’i Island I find myself sitting here in front of the computer, not really knowing what the frak I want to do next...if anything. ME is an energy drainer, and has put me on “Empty” today, but intensely focused on what has transpired in the past few days, and particularly yesterday and today. Still, it’s all I can do to just stay more or less alert; the more or heavier the stressor (can be physical or mental), the more severe the reaction. Sometimes the reaction won’t manifest for a day to a month. It’s called PENE within the ME dx, or Post Exertional Neuroimmune Exhaustion, and it is running my life. The events since last week in our national (and other) “politics” are something that, as I’d mentioned some time ago, were prevalent in my meditations. They are, however, moving at a much faster rate than anyone seems to realize, or that I had even envisioned. I’m taking the weekend (assuming there’s no civ...

   Sunday, 16 February 2025 The ME has been on duty as always, and circumstances of the past few days resulted in a five-day PENE response. I was barely functional for a bit. However, I’m used to it. I’ve been dealing with it, to varying intensities, for over 50 years. It’s just getting worse in terms of the fatigue and just getting things done. Moreover, I’ve become aware of two other persons with ME who went “end of watch” this past year, their symptoms reflecting extreme fatigue-related neural decline. Bottom line, I’ve been advised by more than one medical professional (and ones whom I trust, actually) that, given the condition, I probably don’t have a lot of years left. One even said it was time to “kick back and just enjoy life!” and let it all go. Yeah, right. I thought they knew me better than that (LOL). I’ve decided that (1) it’s better to die fighting for a just cause than from COVID, and (2) the one thing I can still do (according to others) is...

  Friday 7 February 2025 1600 hrs – Kekaha Town, Kaua’i Island I find myself sitting here in front of the computer, not really knowing what the frak I want to do next...if anything. ME is an energy drainer, and has put me on “Empty” today, but intensely focused on what has transpired in the past few days, and particularly yesterday and today. Still, it’s all I can do to just stay more or less alert; the more or heavier the stressor (can be physical or mental), the more severe the reaction. Sometimes the reaction won’t manifest for a day to a month. It’s called PENE within the ME dx, or Post Exertional Neuroimmune Exhaustion, and it is running my life. The events since last week in our national (and other) “politics” are something that, as I’d mentioned some time ago, have been prevalent in my meditations. They are, however, moving at a much faster rate than anyone seems to realize, or that I had even envisioned. I’m taking the weekend (assuming there’s no civil ...