Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

[teacups]

Anyone here ever been told they have CFS? My doc's have been telling me I have this and I have always thought it was one of those diseases doc's pin on you when they cant find anything else. BUT I watched a documentary on video the other day and , boy, did it hit home.
Anyone here living with this?
Has anything helped?

 

[goofygirl]

Yep, I have had CFS since before they had a name for it. My first "attack" was very much like mono. I was bedridden and weak for weeks. This was the mid to late 80's.

Since then, my attacks have been not nearly as bad or frequent. I am able to work and get around, but I'll feel very tired.

I started eating better and taking vitamins- especially iron. Taking deep breaths help too.

 

[teacups]

you mention iron. Did you ever have your Ferretin levels checked? My iron is always normal but Ferretin is always almost zero... I also take iron.

 

[soccerfreak_08]

I am at the very end of it. I still "crash"(I usually go to sleep immediately when I get home and don't wake until the next morning) about every two weeks if I push myself too hard. I had a large problem with people telling me I was just depressed but don't let them make you think it. They sent me to Physical therapy and "cognitive behavior therapy". The first day at PT I did 10 minutes of exercise and then went home and slept for 18 hours straight. Cognitive behavior therapy is supposed to help you to adjust your life style to help you not sleep so much. Such things as don't eat any MSG and try to stay away from caffeine. Everyone's CFS is different though so all I can tell you is I hope you get to feeling better. If you have any more questions feel free to PM or ask them here(I will be checking back)

My doctor also recommended that I take centrum(brand of vitamins). I had a loss of appetite though and was getting proper nutrition. I had initially dropped about 10 pounds because I was sleeping so much and wasn't hungry when I was awake.

 

[Aidensmom]

My mother has been diagnosed with this, and she had previously had doctors tell her she is depressed, so there is, IMO, a bit of uncertainty with this diagnosis. My mom was obviously never depressed to anyone who knew her, there was no mental component present - she was basically just tired and achy. She deals with it with diet - she eats only natural foods - organic, whole grains, no dyes, etc, and that works very well for her.

To me that makes sense, we are talking about a disease that was not in existance, at least in name, to fairly recent times. In those same fairly recent times, we put a lot of artificial substances in our body and call them food.