Having recently been diagnosed with M.E/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome i have been surfing the internet for information. I have of course found plenty of medical websites explaining the typical symptoms, forums to support people like me and medical research blah..
It is known that every sufferer has different set of symptoms, so I would like to put across my experience of this condition and how it affects my day to day living, I hope you find it helpful and chances are my symptoms are similar to mine!!
I had left school with 13 GCSE's and initially trained for two years as a hairdresser. I then found a better paying job in the financial services industry, and having initially worked in general banking i then moved on to mortgage underwriting and insurance sales.
However i had noticed that i had started to feel very tired all of the time, i could sleep for a good ten to twelve hours and wake up feeling knackered. It is something which i became used to and guessed that it was normal to feel that way, after all i had quite an intense childhood and teens.
However by the time i was 22 i was living very sensibly, i had my own flat and car and a full time job. I did not go out clubbing often and rarely drunk either. I was leading a fairly healthy lifestyle yet constantly felt drained, with regular headaches which at first i put down to working on a computer all day. I also noticed that i would pick up the smallest virus going along with pretty serious viruses. In the space of two years i had developed a severe chest infection and picked up Swine flu, both which left me bedridden and exhausted for weeks.
Over the years i had been to my GP complaining of feeling exhausted constantly along with other various symptoms such as dizziness, only be told i was probably stressed or not getting enough exercise or a healthy diet etc etc.. However i knew something was wrong.. In the end we know our own bodies, right? Several blood tests led to nothing and after a while i accepted the way i was feeling as 'normal', although it wasn't easy when friends couldn't understand why i was too tired to come to social events, or hang out after work for a couple of hours. In fact i put it down to hitting adulthood, and thought that this is how you start to feel in your early twenties!!
However i wasn't to think like this for very long, because this year in March 2011, i come down with a very sore throat, and after a few days i visited my GP, who advised that i had a viral strain tonsillitis. He signed me off work for a week to get better, however after two weeks my throat was still sore and i was still feeling extremely fluey. So back to the doctor i went.. and this time was advised it could be glandular fever - i had a blood test for this which was negative, and was told that it may take a while to recover from the virus so to be patient.
Two months later i'd had enough of 'being patient', i'd never felt so ill in my life - daily headaches which painkillers would not relieve, extreme exhaustion at the point where any free time from work i spent at home sat on the sofa unable to move, strange heart palpitations and muscle aches and stiffness with no logical explanation.
So two weeks ago, i finally found a GP who took the time in listening and seemed genuinly concerned as to how i had been feeling. He sat and took a detailed medical history and a physical examination, asking me very specific questions about my symptoms. He then told me that he very strongly suspects that i am have been suffering from M.E/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Now i had heard of this before, i think i read it in a magazine a few years back about a lady being severley disabled - so of course this scared me.
However my GP explained, that although some people are severly affected, most are mild to moderately affected. He advised that the condition can be brought on by possibly, traumatic events or a virus(es), both of which i can say i have had a few of over the years!! I was told that although there is no cure, a healthy diet and rest can relieve the symptoms, as well as symptomatic relief such as painkillers. It was a bit of a shock at first, a little scary to have a 'name' to my condition - but overall very relieving to know that i haven't been 'going mad' and to know what it is!
So here i am, two weeks on - i have learnt a lot in these two weeks from regular research and support forums. I have learnt that stress can really accelerate the condition - a long stressful day at work leaves me with a pounding headache and i end up sat at home like a zombie, unable to do anything.
I've learnt that memory loss is not uncommon, and now those little things i have been forgetting or recent memories 'wiped' from my mind have not been me 'going mad', but a significant symptom of the condition. I have also learnt that if i push myself then i pay for it the next day, even a long days shopping can leave me feeling as though i have been awake for 48 hours, spacey and disorientated.
And i have learnt that M.E/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is not widely recognised enough. Although i have told few people about the condition, i am constantly having to explain what it is, and people do find it very hard to understand how you can be so tired all of the time, even after a lot if sleep.
That will always be hard, sometimes it feels as though no one understands what you are going through. To be honest before i had the condition i would have found it hard to understand, but now i am one of those people. You are not alone, many others are experiencing the same thing every day. I am now taking each day at a time, full time working is becoming almost impossible so i am looking into part time work and to supplement my income at home self employed. Sometimes life throws things at us that we do not understand, but the way i look at it is that i am one of the lucky ones and it could have been a whole lot worse!!
So for now, i am looking forward to finding out more and learning about my condition, others experiences and most importantly helping to raise awareness to help others understand how debilitating it can be without being judgemental.
This is just my little experience, there are so many others out there who feel the same, and i would personally love to hear from others, so if you are an M.E/CFS sufferer, always remember -
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