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Croatia

Neunistiva

Senior Member
Messages
442
Do you, by any chance, know any doctors who might have heard of CFS ( sindrom kroničnog umora ) or ME (mijalgični encefalomijelitis ) in Croatia?
Is there anyone from Croatia on this forum asides from myself?

I sometimes feel like I am the only one in the whole country who has it or who even heard about it...
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
Hi Neunistiva, by posting this thread you created something that Google and other search engines can find. In time this might attract more people from Croatia with ME. I wish you luck. Bye, Alex
 

Neunistiva

Senior Member
Messages
442
Hi Neunistiva, by posting this thread you created something that Google and other search engines can find. In time this might attract more people from Croatia with ME. I wish you luck. Bye, Alex
That's good to know. Do you think it would be good to include the name of the disease in Croatian language as well, or is that against the forum rules?
 
Messages
1
Hi Neunistiva, not sure if u will see this so ill put on new post anyway. there is a CFS/ME clinic in zagreb - Petrovaradinska 1, Zagreb.

i dont have any contact number but if u go onto clinic finder dot com, they will pass on ur enquiry. gud luck :)
 

Neunistiva

Senior Member
Messages
442
Only clinic I could find is Vertebris International Spine Hospital. Is that the one you were referring to?
 

snowathlete

Senior Member
Messages
5,374
Location
UK
Hi Neunivistiva,
By coincidence, I am researching zoonotic pathogens just now and so I am aware of a study a few years ago in Croatia on the possible role of Coxiella burnetii (a zoonotic) and CFS. Here is a link to the paper:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17599032
As they are from the infectious diseases department, their focus is undoubtably more on Q-Fever rather than CFS, but still, it shows that these doctors are aware of CFS and so that may be a lead worth following up.
Chronic fatigue syndrome after Q fever.
Ledina D
, Bradarić N, Milas I, Ivić I, Brncić N, Kuzmicić N.
Source: Department of Infectious Diseases, Split University Hospital, Split, Croatia. dledina@krizine.kbsplit.hr
 

Neunistiva

Senior Member
Messages
442
Thank you snowathlete , I am aware. I have spoken to some of those doctors and they have, sadly, changed their opinion about it and now claim it is all in the patient's head.
 

snowathlete

Senior Member
Messages
5,374
Location
UK
Thank you snowathlete , I am aware. I have spoken to some of those doctors and they have, sadly, changed their opinion about it and now claim it is all in the patient's head.

oh, grief. sorry to hear that.
how viable would it be for you to travel outside the country to see a specialist?
 

Neunistiva

Senior Member
Messages
442
Thank you. It was a very traumatic experience. Especially as it was early in the process when I wasn't sure yet of the diagnosis.

I am actually planning to do that. Of course the main issues are money and the fact that I've been quite ill lately and not sure how I can travel. But situation here seems desperate enough to undertake the trip. A doctor who signed ICC works in Italy which is quite close, and if I am not mistaken the second closest is in Belgium.
 

Kati

Patient in training
Messages
5,497
Neunistiva welcome to the forum.
Sorry about the ignorant drs in your country.
Do you have patient support groups over there? Any estimate on how many are sick with this disease?
 

snowathlete

Senior Member
Messages
5,374
Location
UK
Thank you. It was a very traumatic experience. Especially as it was early in the process when I wasn't sure yet of the diagnosis.

I am actually planning to do that. Of course the main issues are money and the fact that I've been quite ill lately and not sure how I can travel. But situation here seems desperate enough to undertake the trip. A doctor who signed ICC works in Italy which is quite close, and if I am not mistaken the second closest is in Belgium.

Belgium is the best close(ish) option for me in the UK too, but its closer to me than it is to you. Hope you find a solution that is doable. Keep us posted. Remember - we're all in this together!
 

Neunistiva

Senior Member
Messages
442
Neunistiva welcome to the forum.
Sorry about the ignorant drs in your country.
Do you have patient support groups over there? Any estimate on how many are sick with this disease?

Thank you, I feel very welcome, everyone is so nice and helpful.

I am trying to contact other patients, but was unable to do so. That is one of the reasons why I started this thread, hoping I might find someone. One of the rare doctors who was supportive still asked me how come I am the only one who has it when I tried to convince him CFS/ME was real. I know I can't be the only one, but maybe people just don't know they have it. Only reason I do is because I can speak English well enough to read even the medical journals.

snowathlete This forum is the ray of light. I read your article few days (weeks?) ago, it was very informative for me since I'm planning to take a similar trip. Thank you
 

Kati

Patient in training
Messages
5,497
There is so much stigma for this disease, people are not keen to talk about it. Or there must be people who buy into the depression diagnosis or other garbage diagnosis.

Half of my blood is Croatian. My middle name is Vesna. I have relatives over there ;-)
 

Neunistiva

Senior Member
Messages
442
There is so much stigma for this disease, people are not keen to talk about it. Or there must be people who buy into the depression diagnosis or other garbage diagnosis.

Half of my blood is Croatian. My middle name is Vesna. I have relatives over there ;-)

Hi Kati, nice to meet you :)
 

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
One of the rare doctors who was supportive still asked me how come I am the only one who has it when I tried to convince him CFS/ME was real. I know I can't be the only one, but maybe people just don't know they have it. Only reason I do is because I can speak English well enough to read even the medical journals.

That even happens in the more aware of ME/CFS countries... so many go undiagnosed and arent aware they have this.. some dont think they have ME/CFS as they too have been convinced that its a mental health issue, so they dont go looking into it and dont realise it has a ton of symptoms like they do.

Very few try to convince doctors this is real... as we just dont have the energy to go wasting on trying to convince a dr who dont believe.

Anyway.. welcome to the forum. Even if you dont have a dr you can get many ideas of things to try to help you from the forum.