While skimming last Sundays newspaper my attention was drawn to Parade magazine with an article about cancer survivors. As a disabled patient with CFS, I am forever intrigued by the way people with disabling illness cope.
I do not know how many comparisons can be drawn between CFS and cancer patients, but they do have this in common both patients, at least initially, look fine. Both CFS and early cancer patients look like anyone else, they look like they are healthy. As a CFS patient, I too often hear the comment, You look fine. I have never been sure that my healthy appearance is an asset. Too many times medical doctors have used the fact to point out to me that I really ought to be well. The implication being that if you look well, you ought to feel well.
Such a nonsensical view never applies to the diagnosed cancer patient. They are taken seriously because its cancer, and they have the test results to prove it. With CFS there are no test results to prove anything. I might look fine, but I cant get up.
As I thumbed through the magazine, an article titled Living After Cancer caught my attention. Under the heading of Fatigue, I was stunned to read the following paragraph
Many people know that chemotherapy treatments can cause profound tiredness, but they may not realize that fatigue can persist in some survivors for years. Were not entirely sure, but it may be due to unchecked inflammation in the body, says Dr. Patricia Ganz, a professor at UCLA School of Medicine. Treatment could possibly push the immune system into overdrive, and in certain patients, the resulting inflammation could increase fatigue as if the body were constantly fighting off a bad flu, Dr. Alfano adds.
Sound familiar? Why is CFS so marginalized when the symptoms of CFS are documented in patients with other diseases? Is it possible that in CFS we are seeing the chronic equivalent of a condition that is only temporary in other patients?
If CFS-like symptoms are witnessed in other patients, parallels might be drawn between the two. It may be that a retrovirus, or the bodys reaction to a retrovirus may begin to explain how a healthy looking person might become totally incapacitated.
I read of these cancer patients and learn of a commonality I have never heard before. In a way, its heartening because it makes CFS a little less lonely. Additionally, it suggests that when CFS-like symptoms are found in other patients, (patients who have a diagnosed, well-funded disease), it might be that better treatment options will be found for CFS itself. It may be that eventually, a CFS patient will no longer have to explain the dichotomy of looking good and being sick.
I do not know how many comparisons can be drawn between CFS and cancer patients, but they do have this in common both patients, at least initially, look fine. Both CFS and early cancer patients look like anyone else, they look like they are healthy. As a CFS patient, I too often hear the comment, You look fine. I have never been sure that my healthy appearance is an asset. Too many times medical doctors have used the fact to point out to me that I really ought to be well. The implication being that if you look well, you ought to feel well.
Such a nonsensical view never applies to the diagnosed cancer patient. They are taken seriously because its cancer, and they have the test results to prove it. With CFS there are no test results to prove anything. I might look fine, but I cant get up.
As I thumbed through the magazine, an article titled Living After Cancer caught my attention. Under the heading of Fatigue, I was stunned to read the following paragraph
Many people know that chemotherapy treatments can cause profound tiredness, but they may not realize that fatigue can persist in some survivors for years. Were not entirely sure, but it may be due to unchecked inflammation in the body, says Dr. Patricia Ganz, a professor at UCLA School of Medicine. Treatment could possibly push the immune system into overdrive, and in certain patients, the resulting inflammation could increase fatigue as if the body were constantly fighting off a bad flu, Dr. Alfano adds.
Sound familiar? Why is CFS so marginalized when the symptoms of CFS are documented in patients with other diseases? Is it possible that in CFS we are seeing the chronic equivalent of a condition that is only temporary in other patients?
If CFS-like symptoms are witnessed in other patients, parallels might be drawn between the two. It may be that a retrovirus, or the bodys reaction to a retrovirus may begin to explain how a healthy looking person might become totally incapacitated.
I read of these cancer patients and learn of a commonality I have never heard before. In a way, its heartening because it makes CFS a little less lonely. Additionally, it suggests that when CFS-like symptoms are found in other patients, (patients who have a diagnosed, well-funded disease), it might be that better treatment options will be found for CFS itself. It may be that eventually, a CFS patient will no longer have to explain the dichotomy of looking good and being sick.
