Posted 7/6/2015 2:23 PM (GMT 0)
Hi all, this is my first time posting on a forum but I am hoping to hear if anyone has any knowledge or similar experience as me as I'm starting to feel very alone! My story is quite a long one, my apologies!
I was first diagnosed with CFS at age 16 in 2009, It took about a year or 2 for the diagnosis, I do not know what caused it, I had lots of sinus problems always from a young age and was very active overacheiver type and when I first started feeling ill with severe migranes I kept pushing through whilst getting tests done, gradually more symptoms appeared, severe fatigue, dizziness, swollen glands, muscle aches, feeling like i physically couldn't move my body, brain fog etc until eventually the tests didn't reveal much and I was diagnosed with cfs by a specialist. This lead to me cutting down to attending school part time, quitting all my sports and my part time job as well as basically having no social life. After about 9 months I was lucky enough to get into a one month hospital rehab program for cfs, which helped me improve a bit but not enough and once i was out i found it difficult to continue the improvement, eventually i got on to a p.t who had previously had cfs and started up his own clinic and i did a 12 week program with him which help me tremendously! by 2013 i was starting uni full time however i was unable to work as well for the first semester and struggled to have a social life, by the second half of the year i started a part time job and managed that as well as uni, i gradually incorporated some graded exercising and by the end of the year i had a thriving social and work life as well as finally learning to run again, i basically considered myself "recovered" from the cfs although i had to be very careful with the running if i did too much my glands would swell and i would feel a setback. I was also taking supplements and had been seeing natural medicine practioners.
On the 1st of January 2014 I was involved in a serious car accident in which my pelvis was shattered and i was hospitalised in rehab for nearly 2 months, unable to weight bear for 3 months and took me 6 months to learn to walk again. Even once i could walk unaided i suffered and continue to suffer lots of pain in my hip and back. I was on many painkillers, now only one or two 50 mg tramadol a day, but it had been 18 months since the accident and I'm still not right. I have been doing some sort of rehab ever since as well as seeing alternative therapists, things did look like they were improving in december and i tried getting back to work 3 hours a fortnight and well as trying to learn to run again but it was too much and all of 2015 i have kept getting sick, feeling extreme fatigue like i did with cfs and the brain fog, aches in my joints (where i wasn't injured) and had numerous tests all seems to be fine including injury wise, my gp has referred me to a cfs specialist again. I should also mention i had a close friend injured in the accident with a serious brain injury and after watching her suffer for 10 months she passed away, so there had been an extreme amount of trauma, anxiety, depression and ptsd from it all. I actually seemed to go downhill around the time of the accident anniversary, and her would be 21st birthday as well as a stressful court case as the accident was caused by the negligence of another driver. It has been very difficult to dissect which symptoms are caused by what because of all the other factors involved.
Basically has anyone ever thought they "recovered" and then got cfs again? Or is it something you always have it just is milder at times and more severe other times depending on circumstances?
I've also read physical and emotional trauma can cause cfs, whilst i believe i originally got it from a post viral infection of some sort could it be possible all the physical and emotional trauma since has flared up the symptoms again and caused a relapse?
Thank you to whoever reads all of this!!