I first became unwell at the age of 28. I was working as a full-time midwife and came down with a virus while on holiday. I did not go to the doctor as I thought it was just a holiday bug. 3 months later, I ended up in the emergency room with slurred speech, blurred vision, unsteady gait, severe headache, and sensitivity to light. The symptoms were endless. All tests came back normal and I was sent home with a virus.<\/p>\n
Things did not improve. I had been offered a job in Dubai and had been working and exercising hard prior to becoming ill. After many trips to the ER and with no outcome, I was eventually referred to a consultant physician who found fluid in my face and diagnosed post viral ME. I was advised a 2-year recovery which took 5 years in total.<\/p>\n
Encephalitis meant I had a mild brain injury alongside a post viral illness. Unfortunately, the outcome of encephalitis also meant I developed bipolar disorder as an organic effect. I returned to work after a year and it was very apparent I was not myself. However, I had to try and resume normality at some stage.<\/p>\n
After several years of relapses and challenges within the workplace, I left my career as a midwife and began temporary work as a support worker. During this period, I was diagnosed with Bipolar Affective Disorder. Due to having a post viral illness, it took many years to get my medication right as I am extremely insensitive to medication. I have had 2 major reactions to medication. One where I required resuscitating and a further toxicity which meant I was poisoned by the medication. I almost died twice due to my body not being able to cope with medications.<\/p>\n
Then in November 2015, I developed a further post viral illness. My face became swollen as did my glands I was weak out of breath the symptoms are endless. This time it was a different virus. I do not know where to begin in describing the symptoms I face daily. weakness, headache, raised lymph glands, vertigo, tinnitus blurred vision, memory problems, difficulty listening and hearing. And that\u2019s just a few of them.<\/p>\n
I documented the illness second time in photographs as evidence the illness is REAL. I have to rest mainly at home. When I go out people do not see I am ill, but I pay for any activity I do when I am outside of my home. I try to keep this to myself for fear of being judged. I have lost friendships relationships and experiences.<\/p>\n
However, I am currently managing 24 hours a week at work and hope to in the future become a mental health advocate. I also love to sing and will be performing in a pantomime this year! I set goals, albeit small ones. I have made good friends and I am happy. I love life. All I ask is to be believed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Humans of ME\/CFS I first became unwell at the age of 28. I was working as a full-time midwife and came down with a virus while on holiday. I did not go to the doctor as I thought it was just a holiday bug. 3 months later, I ended up in the emergency room with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":723,"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\/seana_m.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737"}],"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=737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}