Allyson, my right eye is very nearsighted, but my left is practically normal. Normally, I am not subject to motion sickness, though I've had bouts of vertigo. My ear infections have a simple cause, my Eustachian tubes are narrow, and swell shut when inflamed. I have been subject to fainting since I got my growth in my teens, though I've learned how to avoid this, which is one of the things some psychiatrists object to as catastrophizing. (I don't intend to change. Waking up in Emergency gets expensive.) I had two inguinal hernias repaired as a child.
I got used to being different at a time when most left handers were subject to pressure to change. This is not a problem, and the criticism that I'm different from other patients does not impress me as useful.
I suspect many of the problems in ME/CFS are related to either dysautonomia or cardiac output. There is a direct connection with immune function. Like ambulances, leukocytes can't do any good if they don't get where they are needed when they are needed. Too little attention is commonly paid to the effect of mean transit time on blood cells. Increasing mean transit time also reduces the effectiveness of erythrocytes in oxygen transfer. These may already be reduced in numbers, though at normal concentrations, because of hypovolemia. Oxygen reaches the blood, but is then carried to tissues by smaller numbers of cells, and at reduced speeds. This also affects the ability to clear waste products. Common medical tests will not show hypovolemia or reduced O2 transport. Common tests don't even show response to orthostatic challenge.
We are all different, even those who think they are normal. These variations serve as natural experiments which would be ethically unacceptable on humans. Whatever is different about us places us nearer to the edge of some pathologies. (This need not mean we are inferior. The U.S. Army stamped me grade-A prime, as cannon fodder. The only negative was my need for eyeglasses. I was able to excel in a MOS for which about 95% of draftees were unsuited.)
Many of the problems we experience in mid-life or as adolescents resemble those seen in "normal" people as they age. Anyone who wants to extend not merely existence, but years in which people contribute to society, ought to be investigating the things which make us different.
