Hi, New Member

Hey.

Well this is my first ever post on any sort of chronic fatigue forum, so hello to everyone, I’ll just write up my story..

Well I was a regular happy, healthy kid, went through my whole life extremely energetic, “hyper” even. I was very interested in combat sports, and was planning to get into weight lifting and wrestling. At about 12/13 years old, I was getting into wrestling, bmx riding, girlfriends and other young-teen orientated things. Then one day I pretty much lost my life, I woke up to the usual parents wake-up call for school, I felt semi-unconscious, after that I was sleeping 15 hours a day, I quickly lost all contact with friends, hobbies and my life in general, understandably I became extremely depressed, and eventually suicidal. I guess the worst thing is when people just don’t understand. I had family members constantly in my ear about it and social workers telling me I had to go to a mental health clinic because it was “in my head”. I was ridiculous. If they don’t understand something, they claim it isn’t real…

Over time I’ve improved and went back to school in the afternoons, I got my GCSE’s after I was told I’d fail because I was never there. (I’m coming up to 17 now by the way) And I managed to go to sixth form full time for awhile, but I’ve decided to go to college instead.
I guess you’ll be able to tell from my post, I am bitter about it, I go to the gym, etc. but I had plans of really going full throttle in combat sports, getting a decent education, and having a good social life. I basically cannot do any sorts of sport, I’m too tired, I’m have such low immunity so I get colds and every illness I can think of so easily, I have doubts whether college is realistic. So all in all I’m incredibly angry with the world for getting what I do, I just feel like “why does it have to be me?, I’ve eaten better, stayed healthier then all of my friends, yet they can do whatever they want and I can’t” None of my symptoms seem to go, yet more appear.

I’m looking for any help/advice whatsoever to get my life back before the critical time period of education and careers. I feel like right now I’m just waiting for my real life to begin.


If anyone wants to reply with there story, anything they want to share I would appreciate it.

Orion82698 said...
Welcome Chem!

I want you to check out this post I made in another users post

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=15&m=740084


Tell me a little more about how your illness started? Was it depression that started this? Have you been placed on any anti-depressants? What tests have your doctors run on you? What doctors have you been to?

Please check out the thread that I posted about and look into this. Stress can do wonders (in a bad way) on your body. You can check out a threat that I had going for over a year on page Two. I'll warn you now, It's long.

I wish you the best. Get back to me on this info so hopefully we can point you in the right direction.

Hey, Thankyou for your quick reply and for willing to help, I read through what you said in the other post and I'm definitely considering taking a saliva test, I’ll try anything.

When I was younger I would sleep for huge amounts of hours on weekends, I’m talking about till like 2pm, but I was always able to get up at 8am for school, so no one thought anything of it. Eventually I just crashed and could not get up. I was exhausted all the time, depression definitely did not cause it, as I was a happy kid before hand, but depression has happened because of the illness and likely does not helped matters. I've never been on anti-depressants or anything like that, I never really looked into it as I felt this illness is the cause of it, if I could be healthy I’d be happy.

The doctors really have been unhelpful, I've had numerous blood tests and other things that I doubted would show anything, they didn't really find any disease or notable virus and just concluded I had CFS, I saw a homeopath for a few years, but I didn't buy into what he was saying to much, nothing he gave me made any difference whatsoever and I don't think he really knew how to get me better.

I feel there is a physical virus or problem, as whether I’m happy or sad, stressed or relaxed. I feel tired, physically and mentally, when i go out or feel happier in the summer time I do feel alot better, but only mentally. I'm still tired, etc.

I've heard of the "fight or flight" modes before, when I was younger I had some bad experiences with haunting and such, long story short I don't know if that always keeps me in alert mode when I’m sleeping, I can fall asleep, but take pills to do so, and I’m extremely sensitive to sound, any knock or bump wakes me completely, whereas I used to be able to sleep in tents through thunder storms.

My symptoms would be: Insomnia
Unable to get into deep sleep
Extreme tiredness
Low stamina (I do physical exercise, but its more a stamina thing, if I go shopping for 2 hours, I'm exhausted completely, if I go to work I don't feel too bad when I’m there, but crash when I get home)
I have excessive headaches, not so bad now, but I used to severely, but this was all caused by tiredness
Tired eyes resulting from sleep problems, and a recent eye problem in my other post.
Incredibly susceptible to virus'
Muscle twitching
Concentration problems linked with tiredness, as it gives me those "tiredness headaches"
Whenever I get a virus it goes straight to my chest, i've been told I have allergic asthma, meaning I'm fine usually, but when I get colds its a real problem.

and many more I’m probably forgetting, but really the core of my problems in simple form seems to be 1. Sleep. 2. Energy. 3. Immunity.

Oh and one thing I forgot that I was told, the Homeopath told me he believed my knocked immunity could be linked to Meningitis I had at a very young age. I've also always had heat extremities my whole life, I'm always warm, even when I'm could outside it rarely seems to connect with me and I can stand in the cold and not really feel too much.


I've had no useful tests done at all by my GP or Hospitals; Although when there I am always told I have swollen glands, I’ll type more about that in the eye post as I was asked about that there. But yeah, the doctors were all about taking blood and looking for fevers or other illness's, when they couldn't find what they were looking for they told me I had Chronic Fatigue. I really have no reassurance In what the doctors say, when I was younger my mum asked for a check-up because there was something wrong with me, they said I just had a fever, she persisted and eventually they gave her a hospital appointment, turned out I had meningitis..
One day when I was working out, my arm tightened up and was sore for weeks, they told me it was overworked and to stretch and it would get better.. Turned out I had ripped a tendon area and scar tissue had built up..

There’s been many other events like those above, so I’d really liked to hear your idea’s as I’m sure they are far far more helpful then the rubbish I’ve heard from my local doctors.


Thanks again.





Hello, thank you for the replies.

My doctors never ever seem to conclude what I have, they've given me a couple of tests here and there, but they have never had significant information for me on what is the cause to my problems.

I have been told for years I have swollen thyroid glands, I was checked for glandualer fever early on in my illness and I did not have it, but they have not further tested my glands atall. I also had a persistant cough for years, as if a tickle in my throat, ALL the time, eventually that went, but as usual the doctors didn't try too hard, just looks down my throat, etc. and never concluded anything.


I never considered Lyme disease until now, but now that I think about it I have plenty of the symptoms, thank you for mentioning that.


You two have definitely given me a few things to research more about, thank you and if you have any more advice i'd appreciate it.


*EDIT*

Well I feel like its worth giving my doctors another try, I have an appointment with a doctor a relative recommends next week, i'll bring a list of my symptoms and go over everything, I'll also bring all information from this site. I was never given an extensive line of tests or officially concluded that I had CFS, so I want them to exhaust every other possibility before I will be able to accept what I have, i've tried to get help numerous times but never was I asked for overall symptoms or a full story, I think if I force this on in my appointment and just pre-write it. They may actually spark a few ideas as to another illness I may have.

Post Edited (Chem) : 3/1/2007 1:09:58 PM (GMT-7)

hippimom2 said...
Hi Chem and welcome. I'm really sorry to hear about everything you have been through during your entire adolescent life. An chronic illness is difficult to deal with, but having one at such a young age has to be really frustrating. I'm glad to hear you are going back to another doctor. I really hope this is a doctor who will really listen and look into things. Have you ever seen any kind of specialist? There are good docs out there, but sometimes they are very hard to find. I have found that a lot of docs, if they can't find something right away, then they think you are depressed or they think it's all in your head.

I'm not a doctor of medical professional, but I would think your history of having menengitis is significant. That's a pretty dangerous disease and who knows what it might have done to your body.

For me, things began when I was 18 and had mono. I never seemed to recover from it and my immune system really suffered. For years after having mono I constantly got strep throat and other illnesses. Then, for a few years, I had a pretty normal life and was able to get really into health and fitness. Then about 3 years ago I got really sick again. It took 2 and a half years and three doctors, but now I'm being treated for lupus. I know first hand how frustrating and upsetting it is to know there is something wrong but to be disregarded by doctors.

I really hope this doctor does extensive bloodwork. I would have never found out about lupus if the doctor didn't run some more in depth labs in addition to the routine ones they run. Someone needs to take a serious look at why you are so sick. Just remember that you are the expert on your body - you live in it and know it better than anyone. So, trust your gut instinct about what is going on and keep looking until you find a doctor who will really help you figure out what is going on.

I'm glad you joined the forum. I think you will find a lot of support here. Take care and keep us updated on how things are going.

Hi

Thankyou for your comments, they really mean alot to me. I've only been here a few days but I already feel the support has helped dramatically and I have a better idea of what to say to doctors.

I'm sorry to hear about your problems, It must be very frustrating to of been healthy for years and then have problems reoccur, But I am glad you are getting treatment.

I just hope I can find a Doctor with the same attitude towards chronic illness as you have, and that they will want to look into my problems extensivly, but if not I will try to keep nudging them to do so.

Thanks again for your reply.