I was 14 when I became sick with ME\/CFS. My\u00a0dad<\/strong>\u00a0had been diagnosed with it the previous year, and my\u00a0mum<\/strong>\u00a0had been symptomatic for years. So, they were very supportive and understanding. Although we were fairly certain that I had ME\/CFS, it took over 4 years and severe illness before I got my definitive diagnosis. The treatment I had at the time helped and I gradually went into remission.\u00a0I had two children, studied, and spent 4 years working with a mission in PNG.<\/strong>\u00a0Although I had some struggles in my health, for the most part I remained in a state of remission.\u00a0 However, in 2006 my husband, who had been my support and\u00a0the key reason for maintaining my health,\u00a0<\/strong>became chronically ill himself.\u00a0<\/strong>I battled on for almost three years trying to be both mum and dad. Gradually, I worsened until I finally went into a major relapse.<\/strong>\u00a0In the six years since that time, my health has been in a pattern of steady decline. I thought I lost so much when I was sick as a teenager – school, friends, hobbies,\u00a0and a<\/strong>\u00a0normal life. These things loom large in the life of the young, so my feelings of loss and grief are understandable. But, the losses I have felt after my relapse seem so much greater – the inability to parent, to provide for my family, to care for my home. It creates a whole new sense of failure when\u00a0you cannot<\/strong>\u00a0be there for the people you love. Although some people experience remission after severe ME, at 43 years of age\u00a0I am<\/strong>\u00a0not expecting the sort of remission experience I had as a young person. But, I do appreciate what I have – a home, family, a wonderful doctor, and technology that enables me to still connect with the world. I am grateful for the health I do have. I am not\u00a0bed-bound<\/strong>. I can still get up, read a book, enjoy my animals, and spend time with my husband. It is true\u00a0that<\/strong>\u00a0my life is limited,\u00a0but I am<\/strong>\u00a0making the best life I can within my boundaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Humans of ME\/CFS I was 14 when I became sick with ME\/CFS. My\u00a0dad\u00a0had been diagnosed with it the previous year, and my\u00a0mum\u00a0had been symptomatic for years. So, they were very supportive and understanding. Although we were fairly certain that I had ME\/CFS, it took over 4 years and severe illness before I got my definitive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":501,"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\/janelle_b.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516"}],"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=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}