Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: a post about it.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Yes, I have chronic fatigue syndrome. My symptoms began when I was in my mid-teens, but I wasn't diagnosed until I was in my early 30s.

Diagnosis is by process of elimination--sleep study, full bloodwork to check for thyroid problems, for Lyme disease, anemia, etc etc. Psych evaluation for depression...the whole 9 yards.

CFS isn't just fatigue. It's more like feeling constantly that you're coming down with the flu. Exercise or exertion--including mental exertion--results in what's known as 'post-exertional malaise', which means you get exhausted and sick (including muscle and joint aches, headache, digestive problems, low-grade fever, swollen glands), and it can take anywhere from 24 hours to several weeks to recover from it (depending on your condition, and what it was you did to 'earn' it).

The fun part is, post-exertion malaise can set in immediately after exertion, or it can wait a couple of days to hit. Symptoms are transient and unpredictable--you may feel like hell in the morning, but be ok in the afternoon...or vice versa. You may be nearly bedridden for days, or you may be able to go out and do things, and be 'almost normal'. But you never wake up feeling refreshed and rested, and you never truly feel completely well.

Some days, I get to take my kids to the zoo and walk around for 3 hours...other days, walking up the stairs has me gasping like a stranded fish for 15 minutes.

This makes holding down a full time job on a regular schedule virtually impossible for anyone who has more than very mild CFS. I had to give up that idea. I tried to get disability, but after a year, was denied--so I appealed. In the meantime, I figured out how to start up a home based business I could actually handle. TWO YEARS later, they got me a court date on that appeal. ... >.> You can imagine my reaction.

I'm building a reptile business now, and I have help from my husband and friend when the workload gets too heavy. Fortunately, ball pythons are pretty darned easy to take care of, and since I can make my own hours, it is working out well.