Get REAL- Question everything!

A: Oh my fucking god. I've just realised something incredible. If you want to erase an illness, you don't deny it exists. You rename it.

I'll take a devastating neurological illness, one that collapses immune systems, starves muscles of oxygen, scrambles blood flow to the brain, and I'll give it a name that sounds like being a bit knackered.

B: You mean...

A: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

B: That's unforgivable.

A: Perfect, isn't it? Because now, when people lose the ability to stand, to speak clearly, to tolerate light, sound, touch, everyone will think they just need an early fucking night!

B: What does it actually do to them?

A: It destroys them. It turns effort into poison. It makes thinking feel like lifting concrete. It makes bodies crash so hard people can't feed themselves, they can't wash, they can't remember words! Some will lie in dark rooms for years.

B: Years?

A: Decades. Children will get it. Teenagers will lose their education. Adults will lose careers, independence, homes. I'll make exertion Actively dangerous, where one walk, one conversation, one shower can cause a multi-day systemic collapse.

B: That's sadistic.

A: I'll erase it from medical textbooks. I'll defund research. I'll tell patients to Exercise, even when exercise physically harms them!

B: So, this isn't fatigue?

A: ... What did you just fucking say to me?

B: ... This isn't fatigue?

A: No. Fatigue is a warning light. This is systemic collapse. Hmm? This is the body failing to recover from efforts! This is energy that does not replenish! Huh? This is a disease where Trying makes you Worse!!

B: Why hasn't this been taken seriously?

A: Because of the name. Because once you call it 'Fatigue', you give people permission to dismiss it. Doctors stop listening, government stop funding, friends stop believing, and patients stop trusting their own reality.

B: So the label matters.

A: The label is everything. Because when you misname suffering, you mistreat it, you mismanage it, you abandon the people inside it, and ME/CFS patients have been abandoned for generations.

B: So what are they fighting for now?

A: To be believed, to be studied, and to be named fucking correctly. Because ME/CFS is not tiredness, laziness, nor a fear of effort; It's a brutal, disabling, life-altering disease. And people are still disappearing, unheard, into dark rooms because we chose a comforting lie over an accurate truth.

B: So what should we call it?

A: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Say it properly.

B: *fumbles, not even getting past the first M*

A: Myalgic

B: Myalgic

A: En-ceph-a-lo...

B: Encephalo

A: My-e-li-tis

B: Myelitis.

A: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

B: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

A: Good. Right! Time to invent Brain Fog!

Left to right:

1. Whittled from a piece of firewood, presumably some sort of pine. I bought the whorl from a reenactor and whittled the shaft to fit. Didn’t take the wood shrinking as it dried into account, so now the whorl is loose on the shaft, and I’ve had to wind some waxed linen thread underneath it to make sure it stays in place. Lesson learned!

2. Not sure what wood it is, found a big branch loose on the ground near my apartment and grabbed it. Notice the notch “faces” to the left. Normally I spin counterclockwise, so this is the one I use for plying.

3. This one is from limewood, which I don’t especially recommend. Very lightweight but also fairly soft. I did break it some weeks ago when I partied a little too hard. No I’m not joking about that. Unwound all the thread on it and superglued it back together.

4. Still a work in progress, but this one is from beech wood. Beautiful, beautiful wood, smells wonderful when working with it. It’s a bit crooked but I’ll figure it out.