islandfinn, this is helpful. I still see some incredible overlap. My mother has fibro & CFS, and I believe I might also.
I cannot help but compare to what you've posted because I cannot read about it and ignore the significance a lot of these things have for me.
Looking at the Diagnostic protocol/clinical working case definition of ME/CFS -
Fatigue: People talk about the way I 'used to be' -- I 'used to' always be on the go. I've been staying in. Some days, in and out of bed. I still work full-time. I have a desk job in which I can usually pick-and-choose what tasks I do throughout the day. In the evenings, I cannot even cook for myself -- I rely on frozen dinners and quick-fixes. I remember a time before I had meds when I went to work and barely made it home and collapsed into bed until the next morning when it was time to do it all again.
Post-exertional malaise: I don't know. I know I used to exercise 3-4 times a week for 30-45 minutes and I lost 175lbs through diet and exercise. My problem started when I told the doctor I couldn't do it any longer and felt like I'd been "hit by a truck" (fibro-description). Doing simple tasks takes more energy than it ever used to. I've re-gained most of the weight I'd lost before, much to my despair.
Sleep Dysfunction: I'm on meds for sleep. Used to feel like I barely slept. The clock said I'd slept for 8 hours, I felt maybe I got 3-4 hours, if even that. The clock was a cruel joke to me -- it didn't feel like that could be happening to me.
Pain: stabbing, stinging, aching, burning, spasms and compression-type pains, tingling, "creepy-crawlies" -- it moves around. It was so hard to describe to a doctor because pain used to be something I could consistently "point at" -- used to be predictable. Headaches: back of my head, front of my head, stabbing eye-pain headaches, now: ocular migraines without the accompanying pain. Headaches that stay with me for a week or a few weeks. I never used to be headache-prone.
Neurological/Cognitive: can't concentrate, often forget what I came in a room for (reguarly!), inability to follow simple instruction or multi-task despite having a college degree, can't remember names/faces, having to write everything down and even what step to do next, etc (I can't visualize a finished task or what it takes to get there), word substitution ("vaccuuming the lawn"), getting lost in my hometown of 17 years, convergence insufficiency (inability to focus vision?), bumping into walls or corners, light sensitivity, noise and physical sensation "overload", feelings of being physically drained by excitement, fear, anger... Avoiding highly emotional people and situations.
Autonomic: diagnosed orthostatic drops in blood pressure leading to feeling faint, some intermittent bowel issues that were diagnosed IBS and then colitis
Neuroendocrine Manifestations: a body temp that's normally 97 degrees, "hot flushes," night-sweats, "mild Raynauld's," worsening symptoms with stress (which may also be accompanied by an unexplained rash on my chest which the allergist wants me to have biopsied next time it happens because he's clueless!)
Immune Manifestations: this is not clear-cut for me. I have allergies and asthma which makes me very prone to sinus infections. I cannot tell if swollen glands are notable or part of other infections. I do have multiple allergies but I just came up negative for a 29 patch skin test on chemicals.
Persists at least 6 mo. and distinct onset: I've been sick since at least 2002 or 2003 with varying symptoms. At one point in 2002/2003 (can't remember), I had -- (in an order I cannot remember): an illness that I thought was food poisoning (fever/chills, vomiting, diarrhea, whole-body pain and the stress set off my asthma) - I couldn't eat normally for weeks even maybe 2 months afterward and I felt weak, I had bowel symptoms and tenderness which prompted docs to rule out gall bladder illness and then call it Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I became unable to exercise and very fatigued.
I don't know what to make of it, really. So much overlap... It's really hard not to look at this without considering your own experiences.
Co-moribidities: (FMS?), TMJ (w/ bruxism), IBS, Raynaud's, Allergies, depression related to physical limitations & intensification of pain/fatigue/cognitive symptoms
THIS was new to me: approximately 75% of ME/CFS patients exhibiting positive FMS tender points (49)