Heya! It’s been a little while— two and a half years, more like— since my last update. A lot has happened since then! I thought it was about time I updated you all on my status and how my health has been progressing. My last post was very emotional (understandably!), so I’ll try to be a little more matter-of-fact and a little less doom-and-gloom this time around.
So, yeah… I have Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, or ME, formerly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS); it’s often shortened to ME/CFS for clarity. People tend to refute the name CFS these days, since it hearkens back to a time when ME was seen as a mostly psychological issue, and emphasized the fatigue over everything else, as if the fatigue was the only problem. ME is, and always has been, a debilitating disease that affects millions of people worldwide. Nobody knows for sure what exactly causes it, though the majority of cases seem to be triggered by viral infections, so it’s often referred to as a “post-viral illness”. A lot of people can trace their ME symptoms back to an initial viral infection, but many can’t pin-point it that exactly. I think mine may have been triggered by a really bad flu I got in 2008, which was probably what was called “Swine Flu” at the time, but it’s difficult to be sure. My symptoms have come on so gradually and over so many years, it’s hard to pinpoint when it exactly started. (I haven’t technically been given a formal diagnosis— I’ve technically diagnosed myself— but I haven’t yet had a medical professional refute it.)
Anyway, you can read my previous post for a history of my health problems and how they started. For now, though… how am I doing compared to the last update?