markielock
Senior Member
- Messages
- 319
Hi guys,
Despite living CFS for 7 years, I still have some rather embarrassing ignorance surrounding the subject. I would be grateful if anyone could clear up some of these confusions for me!
1. M.E. AND CFS ARE DIFFERENT
From what I can gather, "M.E. is characterised by damage to the brain and the brain stem (which is observable on brain scans, and is similar to the CNS damage seen in M.S.)". Apparently there are very specific tests to diagnose this.
My understanding of CFS is that it's an umbrella term to describe the clinical landscape of symptoms we all experience. We get labelled with this when no one can describe where our symptoms come from.
2. RESEARCH INTO CFS
There is a lot of research going in to CFS to understand the underlying mechanics and a means to diagnose it. What I don't understand is if CFS is a clinical landscape, does that not mean the symptoms, despite being common to everyone with CFS, can originate from different things?
Do the people doing the research have reason to believe it is a very particular illness that is waiting to be properly discovered or are they trying to just trying to follow the symptoms to find the most common reasons why these groups of symptoms would manifest? Or are both things considered possible right now?
The more I learn about my condition there more I realise the vast, vast gulf of what has been left unexplored. There are legion of seemingly common tests that could hold the key to a diagnosis for me. It makes me a bit upset at medical professionals of whom I've sought help, especially since it was a group of experts at my local hospital who apparently specialised in this stuff. If my assumption that CFS is a clinical landscape with many origins, I feel like I'm still at the start of my mission to figure out the source of where my symptoms come from.
Thank you for taking the time to read and hopefully answering my ignorance!
Despite living CFS for 7 years, I still have some rather embarrassing ignorance surrounding the subject. I would be grateful if anyone could clear up some of these confusions for me!
1. M.E. AND CFS ARE DIFFERENT
From what I can gather, "M.E. is characterised by damage to the brain and the brain stem (which is observable on brain scans, and is similar to the CNS damage seen in M.S.)". Apparently there are very specific tests to diagnose this.
My understanding of CFS is that it's an umbrella term to describe the clinical landscape of symptoms we all experience. We get labelled with this when no one can describe where our symptoms come from.
- Are my definitions of CFS and M.E. accurate?
- Why do we combine CFS/ME together as a term if they're different? Is it because they have similar symptoms? Whats the connection? I have been using the two interchangeably, have I been wrong to do this?
- Is it true that M.E. is actually fully testable? Despite my diagnosis of a post viral fatigue, I was never tested for M.E. Would there be a reason why this wasn't the first thing to be explored?
2. RESEARCH INTO CFS
There is a lot of research going in to CFS to understand the underlying mechanics and a means to diagnose it. What I don't understand is if CFS is a clinical landscape, does that not mean the symptoms, despite being common to everyone with CFS, can originate from different things?
Do the people doing the research have reason to believe it is a very particular illness that is waiting to be properly discovered or are they trying to just trying to follow the symptoms to find the most common reasons why these groups of symptoms would manifest? Or are both things considered possible right now?
The more I learn about my condition there more I realise the vast, vast gulf of what has been left unexplored. There are legion of seemingly common tests that could hold the key to a diagnosis for me. It makes me a bit upset at medical professionals of whom I've sought help, especially since it was a group of experts at my local hospital who apparently specialised in this stuff. If my assumption that CFS is a clinical landscape with many origins, I feel like I'm still at the start of my mission to figure out the source of where my symptoms come from.
Thank you for taking the time to read and hopefully answering my ignorance!