I am actually so glad I found this forum online. I was recently diagnosed with CFS. And I am really scared about
it all. I feel like my life has completely halted. I can't do anything anymore. And I just turned 23 years old. :( I have been feeling incredibly tired for about
a year and a bit. But about
6 months ago, I started feeling completely exhausted and unable to function hardly at all, brain fog, stuttering and forgetful, constant headaches and muscle weakness.My chest feels funny and if I move or get up too quickly, my heart starts pounding. I feel like a 90 year old woman. My 70 year old grandmother outdoes me these days with everything. I went to have blood work done and everything came back perfect except low Vitamin D and I had a positive but inactive test for Epstein-Barr. (mono) My doc suspects that's what caused the chronic fatigue. Nothing is helping. I was prescribed an anti-depressant but I still feel useless and just have this need to sleep all day and night long. I don't have a job and I have the opportunity to go au pair in Norway in a month or two and I feel like I won't have the energy to do it. :( I've read about
how people ended up in wheelchairs or losing years of their lives to this. 5-10+ years. I am meditating, trying to exercise as much as I can daily, I eliminated most processed foods, haven't drank soda or sugary drinks in months. My diet is primarily paleo. I am trying all the alternative "cures" and treatments but not seeing much of a difference. Has anyone recovered from CFS after a mono infection or know someone who has? It's just so depressing to feel like I will be trapped like this for years or even for the rest of my life, which seems might be shorter now, since I am kept up in the house with such a sedentary lifestyle.
I haven't been tested for Lyme Disease though. And I am planning on scheduling a visit to my doctor again to let her know I am not feeling any better at all. But I've read that Lyme disease can possibly be transmitted through bites from not only ticks but even fleas? If that's true, it would be interesting to note that I was bitten like CRAZY by fleas while staying at an ex's house just a while before I was starting to noticeably feel fatigued. His place was infested with fleas from his dog! Or could the fleas have been carrying something else to reactivate the EBV or cause the fatigue? Or? Shortly after the flea incident, I broke out in hives which I had never experienced and still haven't again.
*UPDATE* Now, I don't know if I am still suffering from Chronic fatigue or if I ever truly was in the first place. But, a couple months ago, I noticed I felt worse drinking diet soda. I started dieting in January and I've actually lost 40 pounds. But interestingly, I had never drank diet soda until then. I had heard so much crap about
it, how it's bad for you, blah blah. Well I eliminated it and I felt better. But I had also stopped consuming stevia during that time, unintentionally. When I started feeling sick and tired again, I thought, "Well, must've not been the diet pop afterall..." But I had been using stevia in my morning coffee, among other things nearly every single day since January! I first starting consuming stevia back when my fatigue actually started, but only in those soda cans called, "Zevia" and I am sure the dosage on those were much smaller than what I was consuming after January, causing my fatigue to worsen and worsen over the last few months. I was also consuming a lot of sucralose. I LOVED those Koolaid liquid sweeteners in cherry.
Also was eating sugar free candy and ice cream, as well as other food products, which all were sweetened with sugar alcohols, stevia, sucralose, aspartame or other sweeteners. I completely cut all sweeteners out of my diet, and added a bit of sugar and now I feel soooo much better. I am up in the morning and I am fine until around 6pm where I start to feel drowsy. But that could be normal, to feel drowsy in the evening. I honestly can't remember what normal tiredness feels like. Hah. But no more headaches, nausea, weakness, dizziness, heart pounding, muscle aches... nothing like that anymore.
I know people with CFS, tend to watch what they eat, eat lower carb and such, which might include sweeteners. If anyone is still using the sweeteners, even stevia, cut it out and see if your symptoms improve. I just happened to be making my coffee the other day, after meditating and I thought to myself how much I loved coffee more these days and then why I had been enjoying my coffee more. "Oh, stevia, that's why!" So I went to the good ol' Google and founds loads of information and accounts from other people suffering the same problems. I know that some things can worsen CFS or trigger it. I could very well still have it due to the Mono I had. But all I know is that I am functioning so much better now.
Good luck.
Post Edited (NeptuneJente) : 7/12/2015 5:47:37 AM (GMT-6)