I got mononucleosis when I was a freshman in college in 2003. My body was never the same after that. I noticed I had significantly less strength and stamina. I\u00a0also<\/strong>\u00a0seemed to get what felt like the flu for weeks at a time every year. I still managed to graduate and go on to spend five years as a high school history teacher. In 2011, I was having a particularly stressful year. I had a very bad reaction to an antibiotic I took and that’s when things really fell apart with my health.<\/p>\n Suddenly,<\/strong>\u00a0everything I was eating was going straight through me and I had unrelenting stomach pain. As I was going through all the testing with my gastroenterologist, I recall the\u00a0\u201cflu\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0hit me like a linebacker after a colonoscopy. I would use every ounce of strength to get up, get dressed,<\/strong>\u00a0and go\u00a0to<\/strong>\u00a0work. After my first class ended and my planning began, the room would spin and I\u00a0could<\/strong>\u00a0barely lift my head off my desk. My mother was staying with me as I attempted to continue to work and try figure out what the heck was wrong with me. My mother left for a week to see my father after asking a neighbor to check on me. A day or two after she left, I\u00a0could not<\/strong>\u00a0get out of bed even to get to the bathroom with my continued stomach troubles. My school was attempting to contact me as I\u00a0had not\u00a0<\/strong>sent in a lesson plan. I crawled across the floor that morning to attempt to send in a plan.<\/p>\n By January 2012, I knew I was doing my students and coworkers a disservice by attempting to hold onto my job-my\u00a0<\/strong>teaching job that meant the world to me. The students deserved a teacher that could actually make it\u00a0to<\/strong>\u00a0class.\u00a0 I moved in with my wonderful boyfriend as I could no longer live on my own.\u00a0 I was diagnosed with fibro\/CFS in early 2012. I was relieved to put a name to the odd collection of mysterious symptoms I had experienced for the last ten years.<\/p>\n However,<\/strong>\u00a0leaving my career and still being virtually\u00a0bedridden<\/strong>\u00a0presented a whole new set of challenges. The debilitating fatigue was now on par with the confusion one would experience with a complete loss of independence and identity. I did the dance of a million different doctors, specialists, and Eastern medicine. The<\/strong>\u00a0only things that provided modest improvement were antiviral medications, antidepressants, and pacing myself; that, and being blessed\u00a0<\/strong>with an amazing support system.\u00a0\u00a0Many times, I wanted to give up, but every time I did, a family member or a friend would show up at my door step. My father was one who came in one of my most desperate times.<\/strong>\u00a0 I have since married my husband and we have an incredibly happy, healthy 7 month old little girl. I am so grateful this disease is getting recognition it deserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Humans of ME\/CFS I got mononucleosis when I was a freshman in college in 2003. My body was never the same after that. I noticed I had significantly less strength and stamina. I\u00a0also\u00a0seemed to get what felt like the flu for weeks at a time every year. I still managed to graduate and go on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/lauren_s.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}