View Full Version : Chronic fatigue ?
I happened to come across a link in another thread about Chronic Fatigue syndrome and now I'm wondering if I've got it. I would appreciate advice from anyone that has experienced it.
On a day to day basis I wake up feeling totally exhausted, so bad that my husband has said we need to go to the doctors to get help.
I feel stiff and achy and often have painful joints. Mainly my shoulders, hips, ankles and neck.
I also have painful armpits. I was putting this down to lymph nodes swelling up, but had no idea WHY they were painful. The nodes in my neck and groin keep becoming sore too.
I often wake up with a sore throat that seems to ease during the day and my eyes are usually dry and cannot look at bright light. (I have my pc screen on the lowest brightness setting)
When I'm particularly bad I cannot concentrate on anything and I become irritable and snappy. I also completely lose my sense of humour!
I'm so fed up of waking up like this on a daily basis. It's getting me down. Does anyone have any advice on ways I can improve my situation?
Thanks
eternally optimistic
12-12-10, 17:35
Hi Vicky
I dont have the solution to curing how you feel, but I feel EXACTLY the same way today in terms of some of your symptoms.
I am exahusted toooooo.:weep:
I have chronic fatigue syndrome, i had it when i was 13 and i have been ill with it on off and off since then, i am now 31. and was diagnosed with it again in feb 2008. I have lots of varied symptoms, exhaustion, weakness, dizzyness, tinitus, ibs, food sensitivities, hypoglyceamic type symptoms, sensitive to light, and sound breathless, low vit b12, the list goes on, but these are my worst. I am at the moment bedridden and have to have the doctor visit me at home, the nurses come to my house to give my injections, i have an occupational therepist who visits me home. my case is quite bad but i do know others who live a relativity normal life but have to pace themselves, so it is not a one size fits all illness.
The usuall criteria for being diagnosed with chronic fatigue is that all other possibilities have been excluded and you have had symptoms of the illness for 6 months, there are no real treatments for the condition, but there are some m.e centres, that assist people to manage the illness, and pace their daily activity. also it is quite common for people with m.e/cfs to have a low vitamin B12 and injections of b12 can help with energy levels etc, i have a low b12 and i get monthly injections, also Anti-depressants can occasionally help to increase energy levels in some people, so if you suffer with anxiety too they may help kill two birds with one stone.
I am curently waiting to hear whether i can be granted funding for a 3-6 month inpatient programme, i don't want to be away from my husband and children for that long but i think that is the best option for me to gain some quality of life back.
I don't know if i have given you enough info or answered all you wanted to know, but please feel free to ask me any questions, i feel like i have become quite an expert in this condition
Kate x
Other significant symptoms i forgot to mention, i am always hot, it can be snowing out side and i will want the window open and my fan on, i have sleep disturbances, however since i have been getting my B12 injections this has improved, as well asa my eyes being sensitive to light i often feel like i can't focus, i find electric lighting unbearable and it makes me feel dizzyer, i have terrible brain fog, sometimes find it so hard to concerntrate, sometimes can barely hold a conversation, i feel sick quite often and get headaches and head pressures. i am sure i have many more to add, but the brain fog is getting in the way lol
Hi Vixxy, i have cfs too and a lot of your symptoms are familiar (although a lot of them could just as easily be caused by anxiety. Katie's right, cfs is what's left when they've ruled out other things like thyroid probs, diabetes and so on. I recommend you see your doc, although I have to say mine have been very little help since they decided it was cfs.
Katie, sorry you are suffering so badly. Good luck getting the hospital funding. Can I ask if you know what it would involve? I know it would be hard to be away from your family but I also know how desperate one can be to get help with this. Hope you get it and that it's successful xx
I have not been diagnosed with anything but often feel like this.
You're not alone.x
Thanks for the really good info guys.
Jane, thank you for your supportive words, as far as i am aware the inpatient programme is for severe cases and it consists of a 2-4 week assesment phase after this a team of physio, occupational therepists, dietician, neurologists, and psychologist work with you from all areas at a pace to suit the individual, to try to get you on the road to recovery. It is the only one in the country they have 8 beds, and it is very difficult to get pct funding, so i am going to need all the luck in the world, they also offer an outpatient programme, but i am jus not well enought o attend.
Below as a link to the website
http://www.bhrhospitals.nhs.uk/cfs/cf1.php
Very interesting Katie and I really hope you get the funding. I used to live in Havering, wish I still did lol, there's absolutely nothing in my area.
Good luck xxx
Oh and it's outrageous that there isn't more provision like this xxx
I live In Norfolk, but as it is the only one with an inpatient service it doesn't matter where you live, i now have to paly the waiting game, which i am not very good at, never have been, but with been totally stuck in these four walls i tend to focus on things far to much, especially when they mean so much to me x
It's no wonder that you do that. Obviously I don't suffer as badly as you do but there have been times when I haven't left the house for weeks. It makes your world a much smaller place when you are not well enough to see your friends very often (if at all) and so on. Even though I am able to get out and about most of the time, the internet is my lifeline. Please let us know how you get on with the funding. I've read recommendations produced by some working party or something several years ago about what sort of provision should be made for people with CFS - as far as I can see absolutely none of it has been implemented xxx
It is so bad that there is not more services like this, my nearest outpatient centre is 1 hour and 45 minute drive each way, then a 1-2 hour appointment, for someone who is as sick as i am it is just not possible to do that, my doctor originally would not refer me to this service as she said i would have to of been seen at what is considered my local centre first before they would consider funding me for an inpatient service, so that left me in a catch 22 situation, as i am just to unwell, also part of the criteria for the inpatient service is that outpatient appointments are not possible so it felt like a total contradiction, but i fought my case with my doctor, she agreed to refer me, so that is the first step, if the refuse me i will appeal, and use up the very limited energy i have, but at least i will know that i have tried everything i possible can.
I have good family around me, but because my illness got so bad we upped and moved 100 miles from where i lived my whole life as we had no family support, my husband and children have made friends, but as i am unable to live a normal life i have not yet had the opportunity to meet many people where i now live, i keep in contact with friends from where i used to live, but it is not the same. I can't wait untill i can live a normal life, but at the same time it is very scary, all the very simple things like i don't even know the way my husband walks my children to school, i don't know what my childrens school friends llok like, i don't know the routine my children have when they arrive or leave school, or don't know the way to my local supermarket, i don't know the way to my doctors surgery, all the simple every day things i have no idea about, as since the move, i have been confined to these four walls.
Im wondering whether i have this... my symptoms are just SOOOO strange/and weird, and debilitating, that I find it hard to even carry out normal tasks. i get these sudden rushes that go thru my head down into my body that seem to last forever, then im left in a state for hours feeling so weird, like im about to die or faint :( I get weak/or heavy arms, and symptoms i find too hard to describe...vewry weird sensoey symptoms....
can someone outline the chronic fatigue symptoms to me plz? i have to rest my arms after about 2 minutes of typing, coz they ache and hurt so much...i just dont feel thats normal...however, once ive rested, they feel ok again, then again i type and they hurt... i just feel like bookin myself into a mental hospital, but ive gotta 2 year old and i cant give up :(
Can I just add - that I too had all these symptoms + Heavy left arm (some days I coukdn't feel the left side of my body) and had seen a ME specialist. It turned out I had Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
Ambers i get that exact thing... heaviness really bad in arms, sumtimes just right arm and other times both of them..but mostly right arm and hand...
i know i suffer tension coz the muscles in my neck are rock solid..
i wake up in the night n cant feel my right arm and right leg sometimes... then i go straight into a panic...
some days i feel fine apart from feeling a bit rushy or weak which i get every single dayyy, but i carry on and go to college n look after my son etc, i drive n see friends etc (i call these my 'good days' pffttt!!) but my good days only last about 2 days max, i get bad days at least 3 times a week... where i feel like im actually dying, the pain and tingling and dead arms and weakness and stiffness, chronic pains all over, even in fingertips :(
do u think this is cfs? x
TBH I don't really Hayz, but I'm not an expert, just a sufferer. For me, the overwhelming symptom of cfs is - not surprisingly - fatigue, and you don't really mention that. I mean bonecrushing, deadly tiredness where you get days/weeks on end where you can't wake up to do more than drag yourself to the loo every now and then.
But the person you really need to ask about all your symptoms is your doc, of course x
yeah ive been referred to a neuro so hopefully get some answers soon x
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.