Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Has anyone every heard of this condition or been diagnosed with it? Well I have. The past couple of week I’ve been feeling really run down. I had a case of strepp but I got over that in 2 days. I wonder if CFS is rearing it’s ugly head again? Every once in a while when I’m feeling lazy, or don’t want to do something I’ll joke with my wife that I’ve got a bad case of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

I was actually diagnosed with this back in 1989 during my senior year of High School. I was always kind of a shrimp, 5 foot 9, 135 lbs for most of my teens. Then, the summer between my junior and senior year I got really sick. Really, really sick. I went to the doctor about 10 times that summer. They tested me for mono, tapeworms, anemia, mono, and mono. They tested me 3 times for mono. I began to question the validity of the test if they had to do it thrice, but all the docs were sure that I had mono. I lost 30 lbs, (I only weighed 135 to start with!) I slept 16 hours a day and had zero energy. They never did figure out what was wrong with me. I started school and barely had enough energy to make it through the day. I come home, eat a little and go to bed at 6:30 or 7:00.

The doctors basically gave up at this point and diagnosed me with CFS.

Doc: “Well, we think you have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.”

Me: “O.K. What’s that?”

Doc: “It means that you’re tired all the time and we can’t explain it.”

Me: “What do I do about it?”

Doc: “Sleep a lot.”

Me: “O.K.?”

Seriously, that’s all they said.

Well, right before Thanksgiving I started getting worse and worse. The docs still didn’t know what was wrong. I didn’t have any real pain anywhere, but I was nauseous and couldn’t eat anything. On a whim, one of the doctors did a test to check for appendicitis (think anal probe!) and it came back positive and they admitted me that very minute and did an emergency appendectomy. The surgeon had done over 1000 of them and said that mine was the worst appendix he’d ever seen. It would have ruptured shortly and I would have died within hours. Usually there is a lot of pain associated with that kind of infection, but my appendix was on the wrong side of my intestines, so all the swelling didn’t cause any pain. I probably wouldn’t have even known that it had ruptured until it was too late, they thought.

I spent Thanksgiving in the hospital and recovered nicely. I continued to gain weight, my appetite increased and I had normal amounts of energy. Now, I’m at a healthy…well I’m not 135 lbs anymore!

Anyway, I wonder if I’m having a bout with the CFS again. I’m tired all the time, I have no motivation, and I feel … blah…. most of the time. Unfortunately I’m not loosing any weight. Does anyone have experience with CFS?

Maybe I should just take a nap.