Going out in the evening was something that I have thought of for a long time now, as what other people do. It’s been so long that I could make it out in the evening, that I was starting to wonder, if and when it would be possible.

Having limited energy and ability often means that people with ME/CFS find it hard to get out in the evening or even in the late afternoon, at least in the beginning stages. I’ve been getting better at pacing and have slowly built up my tolerance over the last six months at getting out in the afternoons, a couple of times a week when my husband gets home from work, just to a shop or even a car ride, so now I felt ready to challenge my body to an evening trip.

I’d planned a meal and the cinema, and maybe even the ice cream bar, all going well, knowing that I could at least snooze in the pictures if I needed to. I’d tried the cinema earlier on in my recovery, in the daytime, yet it met with bad consequences as my body simply couldn’t sit upright in a chair for that long, leaving my chest feeling compressed and I’d had a setback for a few days because of this and the walk back to the car park.

Today I felt confident I could tackle it because I learned to moderate other things, such as not doing my small graded walk to the casino, instead I just lounged around on the beach by my place and rested most of the day.

I planned ahead, I’m getting much better at this all the time, a must for managing the mobility issues, and I chose a car park as near as possible, I even had the change ready and booked the tickets so there was no need to rush. I was truly representing the “planning, prioritising and pacing” rule.

Well, it all happened as I had wished, and I felt great to be like a normal person, or at least hanging out with the normal people, them not knowing I’m slightly abnormal inside, aren’t we all!

It was a great meal, lovely to share something so seeming small, but totally special to my husband and I, the film was good, I had my earplugs encase the sound became too intense and my body, although still heavy and fluey feeling, managed it. We even went to a Morrisons on the way home to pick up some snacks and we felt like big party goers, being out at 8.30pm in a mini supermarket!

It’s these little steps, that feel like miracles, and restore hope in a different future.

I got home at 9pm and felt like the worlds craziest stop out. Woop, woop!