In 1995, I was studying at university. That summer I had good grades, but during the summer of my second year when I had to read about brain research I could not understand the research no matter how I tried. I went back to university for my second year and struggled. I had difficulty remembering where I parked my car. I needed my degree so I could work in a calmer job.<\/p>\n
I managed the last two years doing research and presenting papers, but at a great cost. My doctor did not diagnose me until 1997. I was in pain, foggy headed, and exhausted. Everyone said I had depression, which I did not have. My husband was dying with early Parkinson’s and there was no help, so I managed on a prayer and a wing.<\/p>\n
I found a job three days a week as a psychologist for a short time, and then was offered another contract lecture job. Driving had become a nightmare and I now had hyper-vigilance. I could not renew my job contract as I was too ill. I was too ill to be with my husband in the hospital as he was dying.<\/p>\n
My two girls have ME\/CFS. There is a bigger backstory to all of this. My doctor nearly cost me my life when I went to him with changing symptoms. He said it was ME\/CFS when my legs swelled, and he ignored it. Fortunately, I managed to see a private doctor who straight away diagnosed a blocked defending artery and he operated within a few weeks. This part of my story is important \u2013 that doctors need to start understanding that ME\/CFS is not the only story a patient presents. We are not hypochondriacs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Humans of ME\/CFS In 1995, I was studying at university. That summer I had good grades, but during the summer of my second year when I had to read about brain research I could not understand the research no matter how I tried. I went back to university for my second year and struggled. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":664,"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\/joy_b.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686"}],"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=686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}