Person w/ severe #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #MyalgicE (ME/cfs) #POTS #MCAS & her ME advocate spouse/caregiver. Before: Architect, software interaction designer.
United States
Joined October 2015
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Have you ever wondered what the difference is between post-exertional malaise (PEM) & post-exertional symptom exacerbation (PESE) in myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.)? @sunsopeningband explains it in a clear and elegant nutshell.
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
University of Bristol researchers studied 18.3 million adults and found cognitive impairment remained elevated for at least 5 years after COVID-19.
Risks were generally higher in unvaccinated and hospitalized patients.
medrxiv.org/content/10.64898…
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
I’m a cardiologist. A 24-year-old former Division I field hockey player in “perfect health” just died two miles from the NYC Marathon finish line. Her heart didn’t fail first. Her muscles did.
She collapsed at Mile 24 after texting her dad “Ow” and “Ow ow.” Six hours of CPR and hospital efforts couldn’t save her. This is rhabdomyolysis — and it can kill even the fittest athletes.
ALT Rachel Apa in Bucknell field hockey jersey, athletics portrait
ALT Rachel Apa running NYC Marathon in mint kit with bib 29977
24-year-old Rachel Apa dies after collapsing in Central Park just two miles from completing the New York City Marathon.
Her parents say they were tracking her on the marathon tracking app when she stopped moving at Mile 24.
"Final stretch," her father texted her at Mile 23, but she never replied.
Her parents say they were waiting at Mile 25 and tracking her on the app, but noticed she stopped moving at Mile 24.
After a few minutes, they headed to Mile 24, where they found an ambulance pulling out.
According to The New York Times, Apa collapsed before a social worker ran over and tried to find a pulse. Three people took turns trying to resuscitate her.
She was taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center, where doctors spent six hours trying to save her life.
Apa's father says she died from rhabdomyolysis, a condition that can be caused by exertion, in which skeletal muscle rapidly disintegrates and poisons the blood.
"It’s unfathomable. Perfect health, perfect shape, 24 years old," her father said.
Apa played field hockey at Bucknell University and ran the race for her grandfather, who died from Parkinson’s disease.
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
Marathon medical teams see dozens of rhabdo cases every year. Most survive. This one didn’t.
Rachel was smiling at Mile 14. Beaming. Two miles from the finish, the tracker stopped. Bystanders and doctors fought for her for hours. It wasn’t enough.
Rest in peace, Rachel. The heartbreak is how close she was — and how preventable this can be when the warning signs are treated as the emergency they are.
Runners: if it hurts more than it should, stop. Your finish time is not worth your life.
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
Warning signs she showed (and that any runner must respect):
- Sudden or escalating muscle pain beyond normal race fatigue (“Ow ow”)
- Weakness, swelling, dark (cola-colored) urine
- Nausea, confusion, or collapse
She texted pain and kept running. That decision, combined with the late-race physiologic stress, was likely decisive. Stopping, walking, or seeking medical help on course could have limited the muscle breakdown before toxins flooded her system.
Prevention is straightforward but unglamorous: progressive training (especially for a first marathon), aggressive hydration + electrolytes, never ignoring unusual pain, and knowing that “I’m fine, I’ll finish” can be the last thought a healthy young athlete has.
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
Hello all, the next few months are looking quite frightening for me what with the cost of living getting worse & worse. I’d be so grateful for some orders in the run up to Christmas for all you wildlife lovers. Even small orders would be so welcome (1/3)
annahamiltonart.com/
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
this is very moving
In Minneapolis, people are leaving their “I Voted” stickers at the Alex Pretti and Renee Good memorials on this rainy Election Day. @FOX9
📷: @corinhoggard
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
I’ve met a staggering number of adult professionals with long COVID who’ve had to uproot and move in with family just to make ends meet. Others don’t even have that option.
This disease is massively disabling and decimating our workforce. We need solutions, not denial.
motherjones.com/politics/202…
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
Google is using its search monopoly to coerce schools into adopting AI. This highlights the danger of allowing an unregulated monopolist to control an essential service.
Multiple courts have found Google liable for violating antitrust laws, and this latest move shows it remains unchastened.
As the public increasingly pushes back against the use of AI in schools, Google is making clear it will punish those who don’t fall in line.
Breaking: Google will turn off web search for schools that opt out of A.I. for kids.
nytimes.com/2026/11/03/us/go…
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
‼️‼️ If you vote at the Beverly Elementary polling location in Toledo, Ohio (one of the places impacted by bomb threats today), a judge just ruled that you can vote (provisionally)until 9:15 pm tonight ‼️‼️
SPREAD THE WORD!!
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
✍️ We’ve updated our template & briefing to include Beth’s latest letter to the PM, supported by 360 fellow sportspeople.
If you’d like to let your MP know the latest, everything you need is in our refreshed template (on the same link as before 👇)
Olympian @BethDobbin has written to Andy Burnham to ask for increased funding for ME research.
We are working with her to amplify her message, and you can help (if capacity allows).
Write to your MP to back her call - and to make things easier, we have a template for you.👇
ALT Images of Beth Dobbin and Andy Burnham with a graphic of an email going from Beth to Andy. Under Beth is her quote "I believe you need to fund research into this spiralling illness and help us all get our lives back." and also there is a small chart showing UK Govt Reearch funding 2019-2024. ME - £6.6m, Parkinsons, £79.1m and Dementia £496.4m. The text says "Beth Dobbin has written to Andy Burnham asking for increasing funding for ME research. You can help! Support Beth's call for ME funding by writing to your MP. Template letter available!"
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
News Mexico’s Secretary of State tells me that verified DOJ monitors have been asking “some unusual questions and doing things that are not allowed by law such as questioning voters” in Bernalillo County. The clerk has reached out to DOJ to alert them and to fix the issue.
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
These Social Security champions are on the ballot today in races across the country.
VOTE to send them to Congress and protect the benefits you've earned!
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
The Trump administration is auctioning off leases for deep-sea mining over a vast area of the Pacific on November 19—over 31 million acres.
It's not only about destroying fragile life on the seabed. Research published in Nature Communications shows how mining waste can disrupt zooplankton food supplies, threatening marine life throughout the food web—from microscopic organisms to great whales.
Selling off huge tracts of ocean for exploitation with a serious risk of untold damage and cascading effects lasting decades or longer is reckless, ignorant and must be opposed.
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
As so many of us head to the polls today, we must remember that authoritarians never stop at their first target. After the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, politicians across the country seized the chance to redraw maps, all to weaken Black political power.
Black voters have seen this strategy before. We’re organizing, bringing our neighbors to the polls and, in many places, voting early in record numbers.
Today, cast your ballot and bring someone with you. But our response must go beyond today's election.
Tomorrow, keep organizing. The freedom to choose who governs us belongs to all of us, and so does the work of defending it.
My latest for @MSNOWNews: ms.now/opinion/louisiana-cal…
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
🚨CHECK YOUR MAIL IN BALLOT WAS COUNTED #Georgia
“I mailed my absentee ballot nearly 3 weeks ago and when I checked online, all I could see was an old date this morning. I went to my polling place and the Poll workers checked the system for me. They confirmed there was no record on my ballot being received.
George Family, if you mailed your ballot and you’re seeing an old date too, please make time today to go to your assigned polling place and check in person. Polls are open from 7 AM to 7 PM. Tell the poll workers you mailed your ballot and ask them to verify whether it was received. If there’s no record of it, ask what steps you can take to vote today.”
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
I’ve been notified of another death in ICE custody — the 62nd under this administration.
Today, WE have the power to stop this cruelty and hold ICE accountable.
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
1/ CDC scientists wrote an urgent alert to warn doctors about measles in pregnancy. New reporting shows the Trump administration blocked it. In Pennsylvania alone, 77 pregnant women have had measles this year and at least six newborns had it at birth.
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
Blood on the hands of RFK Jr
M. and S. Shaw retweeted
Only Black folks get 4 hour lines. No lines in the exburbs ever!!!
They are true heroes because they have to deal with that bullshit every time.
