Introducing … me!
Posted on March 20, 2008
Filed Under CFS |
Hi folks. Jon’s the name, pleased to meet you. One day at work in January 2007 (exactly a year after being diagnosed with type-2 diabetes) I suddenly felt very ill. Literally within half an hour I went from feeling okay to feeling absolutely terrible. I’d already had influenza twice in my life, and that’s what I thought it was, as the symptoms were very similar: sudden onset, weakness, shivers, headache etc. My boss didn’t need much convincing to send me home - everyone who saw me agreed that I looked terrible.
So off home I went, thinking I’d be back at work in maybe four or five days at the most. Ha! Fourteen months later and I’m still not working. Little did I know at the time that I was going down with an illness which would change my life - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, otherwise known as CFS, ME, ME/CFS, PVFS, CFIDS, fibromyalgia … I’m sure there are other names for it but that should do for now.
The symptoms were numerous and extremely unpleasant. I won’t list them all here, but the main ones were extreme fatigue, weakness (especially in my legs), poor sleep, weight loss, anxiety and nausea. And when I say extreme fatigue, I don’t just mean feeling really tired - I mean fatigued to the point where even talking for more than a couple of minutes was enough to leave me feeling breathless and worn out.
My doctor didn’t really know what to do with me. I had blood tests, x-rays, ultrasound scans, ECGs - everything came back normal. But there was clearly something wrong. I was pale and I’d lost nearly a stone in weight in just a few weeks. My mother nearly started crying when she saw me. I looked and felt like death. I honestly thought I might be dying. Eventually I was referred to a wonderful consultant who diagnosed me with CFS. At the time I felt an odd sense of relief. I wasn’t dying after all, and I could finally put a name to the illness which had left me a shambling wreck.
Fast-forward to today. I’m still unwell, but not quite as bad as I was during the early, ‘acute’ phase of the illness. Okay, so I still can’t walk very far and the list of symptoms is still impressive, but I’m hanging on in there. Having a warped sense of humour tends to help A LOT. That, mixed with a healthy dose of cynicism and a philosophical outlook, gets me through the day.
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Hi Jon.
Great post!
Thanks for leaving a comment over on my Chronically Me blog.
Hope to read more on your blog.