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CFS or something else?! PLEASE HELP!!

Posted , 12 users are following.

TaylorMason
TaylorMason

I am just looking for the most amount of personal stories and information as possible.

The last year of my life has been a brutal one. At the age of 22, I am in the lowest of lows and I desperately need some help!

Here’s my tale:

About a year ago, a couple months after an extremely strenuous relationship, I began noticing that I was tired all the time…and all around, I wasn’t really satisfied. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed my friends, and activities…but life just wasn’t as bright and vibrant anymore after a month of noticing this ever-present fatigue, it got a bit stronger. I would wake up each morning completely zombie-mode…and that feeling would remain throughout the entirety of my day, until my head hit my pillow that evening.

Initially, I suspected some form of sleeping disorder. I set up a sleep study, got my thyroid checked, ferritin levels, all the basics. Sleep study revealed I sleep just fine and all my other blood tests came back negative.

The fatigue and the weight of the world slowly got worse over the next handful of months, UNTIL I woke up one morning and everything escalated greatly. I felt completely stoned or drunk. I couldn’t think right. I couldn’t concentrate. I felt inebriated. I felt totally disconnected and spacey. I felt as though I had no control over myself. I lost drive and motivation. I lost a lot of confidence.  I always had an incredibly sharp memory. It was actually something well known about me to those in my family and friend circles. Yet, on this morning, almost all new information could not be retained. Things that happened earlier in the day, by evening, I felt they happened a day or two before. I could no longer recount the activities I took part in. This is possibly the worst of all the symptoms. The extreme short term memory.I used to recall mon-sun quite clearly. Now, things that happened just 2 days ago seem to have happend ages ago and almost are lost. I have an impossible trying to recount my full week.  I have no context for time and I sort of feel like I’m just floating through life suffering.

For months I visited doctors getting tested by specialists. I visited a neurologist, infectious disease, I had an MRI, & I had about 20 different blood tests. NOTHING. My doctor literally said “I have no idea what this could be. I am beside myself” TOTES reassuring! I tried altering my diet entirely to organic and all natural. I continued my workouts and ran 15 miles a week. I tried sleeping even earlier. I tried all I could think of .

I have scoured the message boards and found a few people suffering from the same, but without answers.

I’m not sure if depression is the culprit, but depression sure has found its nasty venom-coated fangs into my veins. Tired, depressed, failed memory, no drive, scared…it’s no way to live. I want my life back.

PLEASE OFFER INSIGHT! I will be so grateful 

Sincerely,

Taylorsaurus Rex

3 likes, 36 replies

36 Replies

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  • Elle1234
    Elle1234 TaylorMason

    Edited

    Greetings

    Sorry to hear of your troubles. Did you at any time have a viral infection before this all started. Even a cold or a bout of nasty flu. The virus can leave the body or become dormant but as a result can produce lingering symptons such as fatigue, weakness in muscles etc. It can also manifest into depression ...

    Elle

    • TaylorMason
      TaylorMason Elle1234

      Edited

      Thanks for replying!

      does it sound like CFS or something else?

      I was tired all the time and feeling fatigued and a bit zonked... but just before all the memory loss and feeling of being super detached and not alive, I had a chest cold!

  • mike76241
    mike76241 TaylorMason

    Posted

    you will get some more knowledgable replies, but as soon as you mentioned

    your 15mile workouts, lifestyle is possibly the cause of your CFS/ME

    this in so many posts here  many mention

    pushing themselves  hard, add stress factors etc,

    your resistance is low and you are vunerable to this virus,

    which the main recovery plan is a  change of lifestyle to rest, rest, rest,

    plan everything so you do the minimum amount of

    physical work, then if you notice the slightest recovery,

    this becomes a starting point,

     

    • TaylorMason
      TaylorMason mike76241

      Posted

      Thanks Mike!

      My works outs didn't really affect my condition... When all this started I was NOT working out...and I haven't been for a couple months....

      I have completed 3 boston marathons and also the worlds toughest Ironman Competition.

      If anything. A good workout gives me a bit of emotional boost...but doesn't affect the physical symptoms much.

      Taylor

    • andrew22534
      andrew22534 mike76241

      Posted

      Mike i agree with you... was about to write the same - but... otherwise known as a virus amongst elite athletes.... but the virus is never named or found quashed a couple of greta careers...Taylor, often the elimination of anything else is the diagnosis for ME... seems they have done that talk to your doc about refferal to CFS / ME consultants... 
    • TaylorMason
      TaylorMason andrew22534

      Posted

      Thanks guys I'll look into it.

      I have no headaches, no swollen lymph nodes, no muscle or joint pains...

      all my issues seem to be right there in my brain

    • GeorgiaS
      GeorgiaS TaylorMason

      Posted

      It might not have become apparent at the time that you were pushing yourself too hard. I pushed myself relentlessly with studying, and I didn't feel like it was doing me any harm at the time, in fact I enjoyed it but in the end I got ME.

      I think there were other factors too, such as a bad virus and high stress, steroids, unclean water pipes, I could go on!

    • GeorgiaS
      GeorgiaS

      Posted

      Just to add many people recover!
  • dawn97
    dawn97 TaylorMason

    Posted

    Hi there , it's so sad reading how low you are feeling & when I read , I want my life back !!! I could have cried , that's exactly how I used to feel ( & still do now & then !!) I've come to terms with all the things I have to live with having fibro & cfs !! But it's taken 14 yrs to get to this point !! When you've exausted all the drs & finally get a diagnoses then you will have to learn to live differently !! You need to except its not your fault it's nothing you've done !!! It's a pain in the backside but one you can learn to live with !! Please don't blame yourself , keep on to the drs then you will be able to move on !!!! Good luck & try not to worry , take care dawn xxx
  • GeorgiaS
    GeorgiaS TaylorMason

    Posted

    Do you have brain fog, like your hungover, and as though your brain's made of cotton wool, an awful heavy feeling?
  • katsmaui
    katsmaui TaylorMason

    Posted

    Tylor I appreciate your entire story and I am beginning to believe that every detail of account matters and may hold a key to the condition we all here share. I was actually motivated to join and comment having read your story. One thing in particular caught my attention as it seems to be parallel to my onset of this mysterious disease. It was your "a couple months after an extremely strenuous relationship". My onset strangely coincided with a period of emotional roller coaster of both positive and negative emotions spanning from relationship and work. I wonder if the same was true for others. I am mostly preoccupied with my physical symptoms however not without concern for my emotional state. Still, maybe I am missing something crucial here. I hate to say it but it was as if that relationship/person/emotions/work just sucked my life essence out of me and I just can not get it back!

    if anybody else is making this distinct connection I would love to hear about it.  Regretfuly i do not have any useful pointers or answers.....

    I wish you best of luck and speedy recovery. 

    • TaylorMason
      TaylorMason katsmaui

      Posted

      I don't have any muscle or joint pains though. I don't have headaches or sore throats or swollen lymph nodes.

      I also am able to lift weights and run and not have it increase my symptoms of exhaustion...

      so I am not sure!

  • sylvia17461
    sylvia17461 TaylorMason

    Posted

    Taylor upper respitory virus is a possible cause of autoimmune or chroniclymphocytic thyroiditis worth looking up . The waking one morning and suddenly !!!! Sounds very like my experience . All the symptoms and more hit me  out of the blue . Just because your thyroid blood tests always come back normal does not mean you have not got a thyroid condition or disease . Read up on this then talk to your doctor with the info  IF you think. It sounds like you. Good luck young man !!
    • RFB1800
      RFB1800 sylvia17461

      Posted

      Sylvia, are you still active? You mentioned Upper Respiratory virus. Light bulb went off in my head. I've had this problem for 10 years now.

  • dawn97
    dawn97 TaylorMason

    Posted

    I can also relate to being extremely stressed before becoming ill , my dear mum was diagnosed with cancer just a year after my dad died suddenly , I hadn't really delt with his death when I found  myself nursing mum , running a BUSSINESS & having two young children !!! I was running in circles !!!! By the time mum died I was in so much pain & so very tired , I truly don't think I've had NORMAL ENERGY since !!!!

    that was 14 years ago & now in registered disabled & struggle every day 

    so there may be truth in this being a stress overload our bodies can't deal with !?!?

    take care out there x

     

    • TaylorMason
      TaylorMason dawn97

      Posted

      I don't have any muscle or joint pains though. I don't have headaches or sore throats or swollen lymph nodes.

      I also am able to lift weights and run and not have it increase my symptoms of exhaustion...

      so I am not sure!

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