tiredness

Hi - I have had a really stressful year or so, and already was knocked out for 2 months last year with stomach problems that kept going and going after I ate some bad prawns - the doc put the length of my attack down to 'stress' too... So, I got better from that but have been incredibly stressed again over the last 6 months. I'm trying to finish a PhD and had been anxiously waiting for a decision from the central university about writing off the time from when I was ill before (otherwise I was going to be kicked out!). I got more and more stressed because they took their sweet time about making the decision, and right before I actually found out it would all be ok, I got this PR herald patch. I thought it was ringworm picked up from the gym! (And had been going to the gym to 'relieve stress'!). I'm a couple of weeks in from the herald patch, but the giant rash really only got going a week ago... REALLY hope it doesn't last too much longer, but judging from other posts here, I have a while to wait!

Anyway, on the tiredness front - I had been going to the doctor a couple of months ago because I was so worried about how tired I was and how much I needed to sleep. I normally slept about 7 hours a night and was fine, and suddenly struggled to wake up even after 11-12 hours of sleep. At the time I thought it was maybe stress, but had a test for glandular fever and anaemia in case it was something like that. I was also really short of breath all the the time, and just felt 'odd' - I knew something was wrong! I think this is all related - I have read in a couple of places that shortness of breath and feeling like absolute s**t are often precursors to the rash, though I would never have linked them at the time (in fact I put shortness of breath down to unfitness and tookmyself off to the gym, which appears to have made the rash worse and I'm now not going to go for a bit!). At the time, the doc just essentially told me off for making life worse for myself by 'being stressed' - as if I have ultimate control over my emotions and the curcumstances which cause them!?! This was the same with my stomach problems and post-infective IBS last year... it seems that doctors who dismiss their patients with 'it's nothing serious' fail to understand how this makes the patient feel, because it's horrible and unsightly (and itchy!!) to have to go through. I really resent the attitude I'm getting from a couple of doctors at my practice who seem to suggest I brought it on myself. I'm doing my best not to be stressed, but then i just catch sight of the rash when I'm in the shower and want to be sick! It's even more galling that actually, things were looking up just as this started really taking hold, and I now feel totally blindsided by it. My confidence in myself has totally gone. My boyfriend is being really sweet and supportive, but I can barely stand him to hug me let alone anything else, because I feel so bad about how it looks and feels! Aaaarrrgghhh!!!

0 likes, 5 replies