I was in such a happy place when ME\/CFS struck. I was a stay-at-home Mom and military wife doing what I loved: being with my girls, reading, cooking and exercising. In 2007, I became what I call \u201csystemically ill.\u201d A month later, my doctor diagnosed me with a UTI and treated me with antibiotics. It took a few months for most symptoms to improve, but my energy never quite got back to normal. Then, in 2008, I was struck again by a cascade of neurological symptoms and debilitating fatigue. A few months later, as I was putting groceries away, I realized that everything I had purchased were things my then 5 and 7 year old children could make for themselves. Because I could no longer cook. It was at that moment that I realized that my life had irrevocably changed.<\/p>\n
I had to admit that I could not care for my children on my own. My children are now 13 and 15 and can largely take care of themselves physically. But I have missed out on so much; they have missed out on so much. I can no longer run, or even do much beyond morning stretches. I can no longer cook for enjoyment; it is completely out of necessity and utilitarian. I still read, although much, much less. When I am tired and I want to read, I pick up a book that I have read before so that it will not exhaust me as much. This is what the ME\/CFS community has to do to live with our \u201cinvisible illness.\u201d Edit, re-edit and re-edit some more. And pray for the day when we are taken seriously and treatments are made available. And finally and hopefully, for the day there is a cure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Humans of ME\/CFS I was in such a happy place when ME\/CFS struck. I was a stay-at-home Mom and military wife doing what I loved: being with my girls, reading, cooking and exercising. In 2007, I became what I call \u201csystemically ill.\u201d A month later, my doctor diagnosed me with a UTI and treated me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":615,"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\/tina_s.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624"}],"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=624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}