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    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

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  1. MikeV

    White blood cells

    I have not had the leukemia biopsy procedure done. You get your white blood cell count from a simple blood draw.
  2. MikeV

    White blood cells

    I know one way to obtain a bone marrow biopsy to test for leukemia is to go in at the hip bone. I just found out my white cell count and ABSOLUTE NEUTROPHILS are low.
  3. MikeV

    How do you all stay alive without enough finances or help/care from others?

    I am 48, live in California USA, and had a long consult with a CFS experienced disability attorney last October about SSI. He said, "Yes, people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are getting benefits." HOWEVER, He told me not to expect anything before I was 50. As far as SSI is concerned, 50 is a...
  4. MikeV

    Slurred speech/dysarthria

    Wow, thanks for that input; this is interesting. I know I have never been tested for this. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/myasthenia_gravis/detail_myasthenia_gravis.htm
  5. MikeV

    Slurred speech/dysarthria

    With me, it seems that at times speaking is effortless; sometimes I don't realize I am having troubles until people start asking me to repeat myself, and I think, "Uh oh here it is again." Sometimes I can pull myself up out of the problem just by being extra loud on purpose, talking loud to the...
  6. MikeV

    B-12 - The Hidden Story

    that's encouraging to hear. For awhile it was the same for me. I have no doubt that the b12 has helped me... it dramatically increased my energy and normalcy when I started it last November... so much so that I got way over-confident and pushed myself in to a major CFS relapse in May. I'd...
  7. MikeV

    Forget rituximab! The DWP can cure you at the Job Centre!

    I try to stay away from cynicism as a rule, but David Rahman... you are making it difficult
  8. MikeV

    B-12 - The Hidden Story

    Like so many treatments, high dose b12 was a knock-out punch to my symptoms at first... then the results became progressively less dramatic. I still take it (Jarrow Methyl B12) and I think I do feel better for it... But the results today are decidedly an anticlimax, compared to the initial spurt...
  9. MikeV

    Slurred speech/dysarthria

    YES!!! I thought I was the only one. It plagues me toward nightfall on sick days. I wake in the morning: my voice is loud and my diction is sharp. Toward evening, esp. on a bad/fatigue/crash-y day people start asking me to repeat myself; indeed, I feel like I am talking through a mouth full of...
  10. MikeV

    Novel fatigue syndrome in feedlot cattle discovered

    LOL
  11. MikeV

    Difficulty breathing + feeling of "lump" in throat

    Mariah, Your symptoms sound very unnerving; I really hope you find relief soon.
  12. MikeV

    Difficulty breathing + feeling of "lump" in throat

    An inflamed or overactive thyroid gland can cause the sensation of a lump in the throat. I take doctor prescribed thyroid medicine to treat hypothyroidism, and when the dose has been too high I get a lump in my throat, and swallow constantly.
  13. MikeV

    Substantial relief from alcohol

    reading this thread with interest, seems to tie-in w/ what we are talking about (alcohol): http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/dr-les-simpson-able-to-identify-cfs-by-blood-cell-shape.38100/page-4 hmmmm... (This disease is certainly never boring.)
  14. MikeV

    Substantial relief from alcohol

    That's really good to hear, that you can take as needed OR leave it... I myself frequently engage in the sleep war... for me I sometimes wake up with the roosters and I know it immediately: that my entire fate for the next 18 hours is 100% dependent on finding SOME WAY / ANY WAY to go back to...
  15. MikeV

    Substantial relief from alcohol

    Gerald, how frequently do you do this? Do you tend to wake up every night hungry for it? I am asking because I recently allow myself about 1 oz. of cognac in the evenings; because my brain is in mile-a-minute overdrive (frequently happens at NIGHT). This small amount of alcohol, sipped very...
  16. MikeV

    Three years and no diagnosis. Frustrated

    The dance! Going to the doctor, with me, turns into a kind of competitive game of wits... a definite win/lose EVENT, where I must use strategy, restraint, and acting ability to: 1. Make the doctor like me. 2. refrain from committing the cardinal sin: self-diagnosis (in said doctor's presence) 3...
  17. MikeV

    Nicotine protects against neurodegeneration (activated microglia)

    Funny seeing this, because I felt it at a gut level. I don't smoke anymore, but when I did I felt like I had a minor type of control over how I felt at any given moment. Not that having a cigarette would always make me feel better. It was like a symptom hack. Feel one way... have a cigarette...
  18. MikeV

    Supplements do not have any real effect on symptoms

    Hello All I read at this site often the last two years. I have suffered for 20 years with this illness --came down with a horrible viral flu in November 1994 and was still in bed all day 8 months later. My HMO finally threw his hands up in the air and reffered me to a psychiatrist. Lost...