It started as a fever. One day I was healthy, strong, and active. The next day I was ill in a “flu” that wouldn’t leave. This happened more than four years ago and that day forever will be the line between before and after.<\/p>\n
Before, I could be active with my children, work, write novels, walk long distances, and carry home food from the stores. I could invite friends for dinner, go to church, support my husband, visit my children\u2019s schools, and take them to their activities.<\/p>\n
Before, I could work for eight hours, have lunch with a friend, travel by bus, cook for my family, go to the stores, do some laundry, write some letters, and take a long walk – on the same day.<\/p>\n
Today, I usually cannot do anything of it. My symptoms are always present and get worse when I don’t lie down. Fever, headaches, pain, aching lymph nodes, and the worst: an always present feeling of being ill, including a fatigue that becomes worse the more I try to fight it.<\/p>\n
This disease, that too few doctors know, is something that cannot be fought like an unwanted fly on the window. It stays no matter what I do. And if I ignore the symptoms to leave bed and do something I have longed for, I have to pay with worse symptoms for days or weeks.<\/p>\n
This eternal “flu” effects my loved ones and has turned our lives into something we couldn’t imagine. But still, I HAVE loved ones. I have a family that supports me and friends that care for me. I have people around me who follow my struggle and contribute lot to ME\/CFS research.
\nI do have a hope for the future. I just wish it was closer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Humans of ME\/CFS It started as a fever. One day I was healthy, strong, and active. The next day I was ill in a “flu” that wouldn’t leave. This happened more than four years ago and that day forever will be the line between before and after. Before, I could be active with my children, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":716,"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\/cecelia_e.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724"}],"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=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}