Showing posts with label coping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coping. Show all posts

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Hey, what's happening?

People don't really ask me how I'm doing anymore..I think it's because the answer was always, "Meh."  Truth is, I'm TONS better than I was three years ago, when I first got sick.  I'm vastly improved from even a year ago.  And I'm improving now, despite the flare-ups and stepbacks.

I didn't even know that I had chronic fatigue syndrome until about a month ago, when my doctor suggested it and referred me to a specialist.  I knew very little about CFS except that it is a wastebasket diagnosis (which I know now isn't exactly true).  I was upset with my doctor, because I felt like she gave up on me and was pushing me off to someone else.  I felt despair, because what I understood about the condition (which was very little!) I thought nothing could be done.  I was so wrong.

I looked up CFS on the internet, and after a while I had an "Aha!" moment. I felt a surge of recognition when I read the symptoms, the description...I felt relief.

I decide to go with a suggestion I found on the Mayo clinic website, and that was to try a supplement called D-Ribose.  I figured this would be a test for me.  During the past few years I've been wondering if I'm crazy and a hypochondriac, and I thought if I felt improvement, then my symptoms weren't all in my head.  D-Ribose was my litmus test.

WOW.  My second big revelation!  It had taken me a while to locate this because I had to go to a special store.  After about a week I started to feel a lifting of the muscle pain that I've grown to ignore.