Coping with this ailment

I was just looking to get some advice on the coping side of this ordeal. I find it hard to make the adjustment to this "new" normal after living 46.5 of my 48 years without any real health issues.  All of my hobbies and spare time used to revolve around activities.  Here in MN we get to experience extremes in the seasons, thus offering many different outdoor activities.  My family enjoyed many activities all year.  At first I just tried to keep up when this all hit.  Obviously that couldn't continue, and now I am fighting just to get through each day with the constant tiredness.  My question is this.....how can you find new meaning when everything that got you excited about life has changed?  There are constant reminders of my pre illness state that I see every day....like the new road bike I purchased just before I become ill that I have yet to ride.  I see it in the garage and wonder if I'll ever get on it for the 10-12 miles rides I used to do.  Those type of things really hit me hard and tell me where I am today.  Any words in regard to this would be appreciated!

Post viral fatigue is what my doc has dx'd me with.  I guess I need to find a balance of hope that things can get better some day, but deal with the reality of where I am at now.  Looking at what I can do versus can't is the struggle I am in....

Also hard to have to turn down invitations at times for functions that used to be normal to attend.  14 months into this, so maybe this is part of the grieving process.

Thank you Loopy Pig!  My tests at Mayo clinic (yes, spent 2 days there for testing) indicated EBV in my system.  I hit on 2 of the 3 markers, meaning that it is not active, but was sometime within the past year.  This makes sense I guess, over the past 10 years I have had 4-5 occasions where a flu bug would not abate for 2-3 months afterwards.  My onset was very distinct...in fact I can pinpoint the day where I came down with what seemed like the flu.  I have a follow up at mayo on March 3.  From what you are saying, trying some strong anti-virals would be a possibility?  The mayo doc said that since the virus is not active in my system, that anti virals would not be effective.  But then again, I didn't feel that they really took my seriously since no test revealed anything loud and clear.  Believe me, I want to exhaust every option before resigning myself to being like this.  Reply back when you can.  Thanks!

Well, I hate to say this because it sounds ridiculous, arrogant, etc., but I think the folks at Mayo are wrong about anti-virals effects on latent EBV, latent HHV6 and latent CMV. Tell them to get on their computers and do a little research into the studies done by Jose Montoya at Stanford, where Valcyte gave most people with latent EBV a big improvement in symptoms. Also, even the recent studies with Rituximab show that going after viruses on the B lympocyte, where herpes viruses (EBV, HHV6 are herpes viruses) reside, cause people to improve.

I myself had no sign of active EBV infection when I got CFIDS. I had had EBV in highschool. I developed CFIDS in my 30's, after having septic shock, and I had normal bloodwork. I felt horrible, and the only thing wrong with my bloodwork is that my indicators for PAST EBV were through the roof. I had no indication of current EBV at that time. After I took anti-virals, my numbers on my blood work for past EBV infection came down from like 3000 to 300, and lo and behold, simultaneously, I achieved remission.

Also, to the previous poster, you HAVE infections/pathogens if you have CFIDS. However, sometimes infections don't show up in bloodwork, because platelets are over-active in CFIDS and the bacteria and platelets hide in the clumpy blood. I had to be on heparin for a year before my tests for HHV6 infection showed up positive. My doctor and I couldn't figure out why if my EBV had come down, I still felt bad, so I did the heparin to find out what else was there.
Also, what have you been tested for? There are alot of pathogens - EBV, HHV6, CMV, Babesia, other parasites, Chlamydia pneumonia, mycoplasm pneumonia, Lyme disease, and like 7 or 8 other pathogens.

Re the Mayo Clinic, I am sure they have helped many people, but I had a friend whose son had cyclic vomiting every day and no doctor could figure out why. She eventually took him to Mayo and spent thousands, staying for several days with him undergoing a kazillion tests.
He was not able to attend school and was tutored at home because of this illness. It went on for years. Nearly all of the school staff and a good number of specialists thought it was psychological.
And yes, Mayo could not dx him either. A complete waste of time and money.
Finally, she took him to a lowly family practice physician, more of the holistic type. He nailed it. It was COW'S MILK allergy. Talk about missing the obvious. He stopped the dairy and never vomited again. He was able to graduate with his senior class.
Sometimes I think a good percentage of so-called top notch specialists are educated to idiocy.
Mayo Clinic has a name, but I would think twice and then again before I would go there to get a dx.