I was 21 when I got sick; I have lived with ME\/CFS for 7 years. Thankfully, not all of it has been bad. It has been more like a real rollercoaster ride, with terrifying turns and unexpected twists.<\/strong><\/p>\n The first 16 months were awful. I came down with a flu-like illness that did not improve over many months. In fact, things got worse after the initial onset of the illness. I developed crippling pain, fatigue, and weakness. I was sensitive to light and sound.\u00a0I had to give up everything I loved doing.\u00a0<\/strong>My life became isolated as I gave up work, school, a social life, and\u00a0my hope of becoming<\/strong>\u00a0a professional golfer. As my body got weaker, I realized that I was probably never going to be able to compete in golf tournaments again; that was very difficult.<\/strong><\/p>\n I cannot express in words how difficult that first year or so was, probably because I was so attached to my place in the world. But, then I met a Qigong healer in 2009\u00a0who<\/strong>\u00a0literally changed my life. With her help, I was able to return to 70% health.\u00a0I began school and pursued competitive golf again.\u00a0<\/strong>I still had ME\/CFS, but it was not confining. I had more limited energy than a healthy person, but I felt fantastic. After 16 months of zero improvement, I could finally relate to all those recovery stories I had read.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, a serious knee injury led to a decline of health again and I developed a more serious case of ME\/CFS this time. But, it’s different now.\u00a0<\/strong>That initial year of being sick was terrible because I did not know how to be me unless I was striving or working at a goal. Now, I am okay with being me. I am happier. My happiness does not rely as much on being healthy or productive. But, my concerns and worries are still there. After my knee injury, I could not walk for 3 years.\u00a0 It has been wonderful to be able to walk again these past 2 years, but I still have very limited energy in my legs.<\/p>\n For the past few months, I have been pursuing a massage certification.\u00a0 It has been fun but enormously challenging. Unless my health improves radically, I\u00a0will not<\/strong>\u00a0become a massage therapist, but the experience is rewarding and uplifting. When I was at my sickest, I\u00a0could not even consider<\/strong>\u00a0doing massage school. I have a lot to be grateful for. I am sad about some things, but I am more optimistic than anything.\u00a0 The body does not always heal itself, even with the right attitude and health habits.\u00a0 But I am learning to build a healthy life and that is something that the limits of ME\/CFS have taught me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Humans of ME\/CFS I was 21 when I got sick; I have lived with ME\/CFS for 7 years. Thankfully, not all of it has been bad. It has been more like a real rollercoaster ride, with terrifying turns and unexpected twists. The first 16 months were awful. I came down with a flu-like illness that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":498,"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\/cameron_d.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522"}],"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=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}