Humans of ME/CFS

I have always trained a lot. Taking care of my family has always been my top priority. The job has always been performed as required by management. But then something happened 3 days after a swine flu shot in 2009. I got a high fever and my whole body ached. I couldn’t be out of bed for weeks and the recovery took longer than usual. I thought I had the worst kind of flu and that I would recover 100%.

Days, months, years went by… I did go to different doctors for the pain, headaches, fever and other unexplained symptoms. I was a patient that nobody wanted to take on due to all my unexplained severe symptoms. Spring of 2014, I lived my life as good as possible. Trained a lot, ate diet food, and was in my best shape ever. I didn’t feel as good as I should have. Extremely tired, aching pain in my body, couldn’t keep food down, and started to throw up after training. I could no longer run. Something was extremely wrong. In November 2014, I had a lot of travel booked within my profession. After that period of travelling I could feel that something snapped inside. After that day, I was bedridden for 4 months, couldn’t walk more than 40 meters, and couldn’t stand without support.

Today: my day consists mostly of sleeping, resting, and painkillers. I have home help from my community and no longer train more than some small exercises that my occupational therapist has given me. If I have a good day I can leave the house in a wheelchair with assistance. I have trouble being around a lot of people and therefore can’t chat with friends. I try to live my life as fully as I can. My family supports me in every way. Many times a day I cry inside and try to look as happy as possible. There have even been times when I wanted to end this miserable life. Who wants to live this way? I know that I do not. A hope for a treatment for ME/CFS is always on my mind.