Struggling today...with a different set of symptoms
Posted , 4 users are following.
A little over a week ago I had a run of Doing Too Much, and I've been waiting for the effects to hit me ever since at the time I actually felt ok. I felt fine for several days after the exertion, and I started to get complacent and thought maybe I was getting well again and that exertion just didn't effect me as badly as it used to...
Well, over the weekend I felt lightheaded most of the time. I managed to go to work yesterday in spite of having vertigo in the morning - I didn't notice it when I was sitting down and just clung on to things when I had to walk around - but when I got home I started to get bowel cramps, then nausea, shivering and lightheadedness - all those feelings I associate with getting the flu...or a CFS crash. Because it feels like an immune response I can't tell if I'm actually getting a virus or if it's "just" the CFS, which is kind of scary (even though both are equally debilitating, I'd like to know if my body is being invaded by a bug thank you very much!).
These autonomic dysfunctions are more like the symptoms I had when my illness first started, and less like the symptoms I've been having recently (mostly headaches, brain fog, gastroparesis, heavy feeling throughout my body and extreme exhaustion). One of the biggest differences is the clarity of my thinking - I have no brain fog at all and I can think and remember things very clearly, even when the rest of my body is trying to shut down. It feels like the nausea is due to low blood pressure, rather than gastroparesis...I have a lot of experience with different kinds of nausea and I can distinguish them all lol.
I'm staying home from work today and so far I think I've slept for 12-13 hours. I could easily sleep for longer. I feel less nauseous and lightheaded than I did last night, but I have a headache now from dehydration and lack of food - have absolutely no appetite though and know from experience I'll feel even worse if I eat. I'm drinking electrolytes and have some dry biscuits by the bed which I haven't had the courage to try yet.
Does anyone else get very different symptom sets at different times with CFS? Is this normal?
0 likes, 5 replies
Beverley_01 grailmoth
Posted
Hi grailmoth,
I do. I'm 5 years in and have got used to this varying degrees and levels of the condition. In the first year i got many days you describe where i would think 'wow! I'm better!!' I'd then do things that would ultimately remind me that i wasn't and I'd be wasted again. I used to walk 30 miles a week and was very active so not being physical has been a big knock.
The flu like symptoms i also feel like you "am i really ill? Or is it just cfs/me? " but, it doesn't really matter because it's the same feeling and same cure really. Sometimes I've had the flu like symptoms and felt i was in for the long haul only for them to disappear in a few hours. Also, a thread on here (memory has no idea of name) discussed that many people on her feel they don't actually get flu any more?
Also, chemicals such as those sprays in public toilets, make me get flu like symptoms so they may also affect you.
I hope your current flair up goes again soon.
Beverley
grailmoth Beverley_01
Posted
Thank you for your reply - I was feeling so scared and anxious earlier, but it really helps just knowing I'm not alone!
I'm really curious about that thread you mentioned, as I have always had a very violent immune response to quite ordinary cold viruses, and I haven't got sick yet since having CFS so I don't know how my body will respond to them anymore. I'll go looking for it
Beverley_01 grailmoth
Posted
Not a great day for me, it would be a thread from about 2 years ago and my mind cannot think what it might be called. Bad eye strain headache today so not in position to check.
Beverley
ruth13083 grailmoth
Posted
Yes what you describe sounds similar to me and my colleague who both came down with this 10 months ago. We are MUCH better than we were but symptoms still wax and wane, ebb and flow. I know exactly what you mean by trying to distinguish between the post viral syndrome or just a regular ache, cold or tiredness. Sometimes we feel worried that we’ll be really poorly again, then the symptoms just disappear in either hours or days. Then something else returns. It can either be stomach problems, fatigue, strange head aches, muscle and gland aches, ear pain etc. Very difficult to deal with things coming and going all the time, I try not to think ‘oh, that’s all over with now I’m totally better’ but rather ‘I’m in a good phase right now, but if I have another dip then I know I’ll pick up again’. Glad you’re feeling better and talking with others going through the same really helps. How did your illness first start? Xxx
grailmoth ruth13083
Posted
Mine started a few days into a new job, I had really bad diarrhea then started to feel faint and shivery and I was sure at first that I was getting the terrible flu everyone in the office had...but it didn't develop into anything, I just kept feeling randomly faint throughout the day and I got a whole lot tests done that came back normal. The only thing they picked up was some white blood cells in my stool, which the doctor said might have been due to a mild gastro infection that wasn't picked up by the tests, but I still don't know to this day if I actually got a virus. I'm inclined to think not.