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Describing Fibromyalgia and CFS
Describing Fibromyalgia and CFS to those who haven’t experienced chronic pain and illness can be, at mildest, a challenge! Here are some example descriptions, from people who’ve tried to put it into their own words: From Jenn Vesperman: Think about how you feel when you get a flu, all sniffly and sneezy and with a [...]
Reunions
This article was written by Jenn Vesperman. Used with permission. I avoided my high school reunion. I don’t like social occasions much anyway. I hate getting tired so quickly, I hate having to avoid smoke. I hate all the ‘good advice’ about CFS, if I explain why. I hate the weird looks if I don’t. [...]
Experiences In A Rehab Hospital: The Followup
Please also read the previous article Exercise and CFS: Experiences in a rehab hospital, for the complete picture. 9:00 am Wake up 9:30 am Breakfast, get dressed 10:00 am Gymnasium Doesn’t sound much like a typical morning for somebody with severe CFS and fibromyalgia? It’s mine, four mornings every week. … Or at least, it [...]
Exercise & CFS: Experiences In A Rehabilitation Hospital
I spent a month last year in a rehabilitation hospital – Cedar Court. Following this stay I returned for three mornings a week as an outpatient. I also spent a further week there last December for a ‘top up’. I’m usually called Ricky, I’m 24, and I’ve had CFS and fibromyalgia for four years now.
Fishing Without A Hook
This article written by Emma Corcoran. Used with permission. It took four years for me to be given a diagnosis of CFS. This is a piece I wrote a few years ago describing what it felt like to live with an undiagnosed condition. I cried a lot last week. I cried on the tram. At [...]
Holding Action
I live in a house. The house is on the bank of the river. The river is in flood. Each morning, when I wake up, I look out the window and the river is a little higher. First, I put rocks on the banks of the river. It kept out the water but the river [...]
Well For A Week …
What would I do if I was well for a week? Go on long bike rides and feel the wind in my hair Visit some friends who live a few hours drive away – too far to visit now. Eat fish and chips, and pizza, and sugary stuff. Run! Just because I could. Go see [...]
But, Aren’t You Paralysed?
It was as honest question. The young man seemed genuinely confused, blushing as I kicked my feet against the wheelchair’s foot-rest to demonstrate that I was indeed able to move. The preceding parts of the conversation had been unremarkable. The usual small talk as he helped me fill out the university enrolment forms, until he [...]
Functionality Levels For Ricky, Start of 2003
Some notes about these levels: If I try to do something at a level above the one where I am functioning at that point in time, I will overdo it and crash back to a lower level. At all of these levels but especially the lower ones, even some of the things I can “do” [...]
Envying Stephen Hawking
This article written by Jenn Vesperman. Used with permission. I’m sitting in the bath, which is the one place which causes the pain to fade for a time. I think about what parts of the body I’d trade to be well. Would I lose a leg? An arm? The sight of my right eye? And [...]
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