# So, what's your story?



## M&M (Jan 20, 2002)

Now that we're in our new environment, I thought it might be a bit fun, and perhaps a bit enlightening, to get to know each other a bit better.For those of you who have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia Syndrome, or CFS/ME, please share your story!Please tell us what your diagnosis is, and your story of when, how, and where you became ill. (As best you can remember)How long have you been ill? How many doctors did you have to see before you got your diagnosis? And anything else you want to share about Your Story!


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## M&M (Jan 20, 2002)

Ok, well I'll try going first!







I saw 4 doctors before my current doctor. He's my 5th, and he finally was able to diagnose me, and try to treat my symptoms as best he can. I am blessed to have him as my doctor.I think my story starts back when I was about 17. I got Mono ("Glandular Fever" in the UK) and never fully recuperated. But, I recovered enough to live a pretty normal life. I would just get really run down sometimes, and get winded a lot easier when I was running, etc.It didn't get really bad again until 1999. I was going to spend a month in the Andes Mountains in South America, so I got the Hepatitis vaccine. It's a series of 2 or 3 shots, if I remember correctly, but I only got the 1st one in the series, and it made me sick enough that I never got the other shots in the series.While in South America, I became very ill from the altitude....Well, that was the only explanation the doc could find. Then, I was kind of ok for a couple of years, kind of teetering on the brink of becoming VERY ill. Then finally, I became VERY ill, and starting my trek to various doctors. I ended up getting diagnosed with Fibro and CFS/ME, but I don't focus on the Fibro (and I usually don't even mention it anymore), as I really don't have that much muscle pain as most of the Fibro patients I know. I am currently disabled, and, like the rest of you, I have a host of other illnesses. (Endo, IBS, Neurocardiogenic Syncope, etc)Ok, so who's brave enough to go next?


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## Clair (Sep 16, 2000)

Hi MrsM







My story also started at 17 with a supposed bout of glandular fever but I can confirm I didn't get it off MrsM







Luckily I was a student for the next 5 years, so it was easy to lead a fairly sedate slow life, not turn up for morning lectures and take it easy so it had no great huge impact on me.At 22 i got a high flying job in IT and spent the next four years burning the candles both ends and doing some pretty major flitting about the country instlling computer systems til all hours of the day and night.Then I went for a weekend to my ex-boyfriends parent's and we had this one meal where we had steak and the next day i woke up and was never the same again, first two weeks started off with major stomach problems, then slowly the fatigue, brain fog, night sweats, dead pegs (or achey legs to you) and other fun parts of CFS/ME set in.It took me 3 years of being constantly off sick from work, but my GP insisted it was merely depression. My work sent me to see an occupational specialist doctor and within being in his door two minutes he knew it was CFS/ME. I went back and confronted my GP with this and the bloody man wouldn't have it and huffed and puffed and said it didnt matter what it was since there was no treatment. So I dumped him and turned up on the doorstep of a GP sympathetic to ME/CFS. I then got referred onto an Endocrinologist who spent the next year telling me I had something different everytime I saw him, I think I had Lupus, a brain tumour, Coeliacs Disease, Multiple Schlerosis and addisons Disease (yes how I coped with em all i will never know







) anyway eventually he decided it was just (sigh at the *just*) ME/CFS and prompty said...your a clever girl you know more about it than I do so get on with it, come back twice a year and say hello tell me how your doing oh and eat more banana's. and thats my story in a nutshell lol. yes and my endocrinologist is as mad as a hatter but hey hes a good bloke and very supportive.Then to add more fun to the mixture I just got diagnosed with (OAB) overactive bladder which has me up going to the loo all night - oh the joys of old age! (and im only 30







)


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## M&M (Jan 20, 2002)

I enjoyed that Clair! Your grace under pressure, and sense of humor about a tough situation are not only refreshing, but also an inspiration!! Wouldn't it have been nice though, if we HAD shared our Glandular Fever? ROFL


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## Clair (Sep 16, 2000)

Hi MrsM







I aim to please!I think if I did catch glandular fever off you, people would be a-talking!







Anyway I have to laugh otherwise I would cry, I have been swindled out of a large sum of money by my unscrupulous ex-housemate , and to boot she has left over a Â£1000 of debts behind and has been clever enough to transfer them into my name so right now I'm fuming. its my word against hers to the debtors and because she is such a consummate liar and cheat im coming out as the bad party even though im innocent. The only persons who can prove my innocence are my landlords and they have just gone back abroad and are not answering their mobile (only contact number i have) so im stuck paying alot of debts that are not mine and no money to even buy food im having to borrow it off friends.


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