How did your ME start?

[perardua]

I am a bit frightened because my health is declining. My brain is failing, and episodes of breathlessness (at rest) are becoming more frequent. I am 27 and well off.

I would be very grateful to hear anyone's experiences of how their ME started.

 

[SickOfSickness]

Many had a flu-like illness:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/flu-like-illness-onset-poll.19942/

Some became sick after a flu shot:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/the-flu-vaccination-poll.1037/

Here is you can see a rough percentage and what type of cause:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/what-caused-your-cfs-poll.8725/
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/the-onset-poll.1270/

There are also some who don't know their cause.

 

[Hugocfs]

I would describe mine as gradual onset after overexertion.

 

[taniaaust1]

Mine was gradual but a sudden onset (sudden classical ME virus symptoms including high fevers, muscle pains, swollen glands etc), gradual as mine was on and off at first before the symptoms became full time.

 

[stridor]

I had breathlessness at rest and talking was very difficult. It went away after I started taking hydrocortisone. My adrenals are pooched.
My health started to decline (in terms of ME) in 2009. When I had the mercury amalgams removed in Dec 2010 and Jan 2011, that is when the you-know-what hit the fan. Thyroid and adrenals quit functioning effectively. I started down a steep slope into ME/CFS with low temperatures which dropped with any activity and post-exertional fatigue. A guy on the mercury site told me I had ME/CFS.
I thought, "fine, I will chelate my way out of it".
I chelated mercury until I hit the wall in July 2011. I couldn't function while standing and I wasn't processing information well. That is when the same guy told me that I had a methylation problem. I did the best I could and now I am on this site looking to tweak what I am doing.

 

[peggy-sue]

My onset was incredibly sudden. Seconds, not minutes.
I was crossing a road, in the middle of a very enjoyable long walk of several miles. (I was very fit.)
On one side of the road I was well, by the time I reached the other side, I was wading through a lake of treacle.

11 years on, I'm still trying to wade through that lake of treacle.

A few weeks beforehand I'd been with family for the yuletide season. My brother's partner had 'flu. I caught a sniffle from him and so did my brother and my partner.

My brother's partner came down with ME at the same time as I did, my brother got a 9-month PVFS, my partner got IBS.

 

[*GG*]

Mine started with Mono (EBV) in 2003, haven't been the same since.

GG