You glance at the clock & notice that it's almost 1 PM. You think back to last night, going to bed at around midnight. You fell asleep within minutes. 13 hours of sleep. You just don't want to get up. You want to turn around, & go back to sleep. Your sister wanted to go out. You're so tired. You just don't have the energy. You pretend to have a headache. You hate doing so. But you can't say "I'm too tired". You think of the day's to-do list & discover you have nothing really to do. That's good, more sleep. You roll back over & sleep for another 5 hours. Again, at 6 PM, you rise for dinner. 18 hours of sleep, you're STILL exhausted & you barely muster the energy to make yourself a couple cheeseburgers for dinner. It's been like this for years. You rarely have the energy to do anything. You're just too tired. You've told your Dr many times over the years. But the complaints are futile. You're illness, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), has no cure or treatment. There's nothing that can be done but tolerate it & hope it goes into remission. Someday, you hope to wake up & know what it's like to havethe energy to stay up for more then 3 hours & not be exhausted to your very core.
What you just read above is the account of the struggle a person goes through when they have CFS. A disease that I have suffered from for 11 years. In some, it's life-long. In others, it goes away.
Symptoms are:
•Unrefreshing sleep
•Sore throat
•muscle & joint pain
•Cognitive difficulties
•Chronic, often severe, mental & physical exhaustion
Sufferers Have Also Reported:
•Muscle weakness
•Increased sensitivity to light, sound, & smell
•Orthostatic Intolerance
•digestive disturbances
•depression
•Cardiac & repiratory problems
The cause of CFS is not known, & it's rare, & there are no tests to prove you have it.