Came to this site today after reading a preprint, not peer-reviewed, research article on a site called Research Square about what's showing up in people who are having post-vaccine health problems. These are folks who only had the vax but not Covid.
Then I read the site-wide rule an article has to be peer-reviewed first to post it here. I never got the shots nor have I had Covid, but have read numerous accounts of problems with both the shots, and, of course, Covid itself.
It's been fascinating to watch the world pay attention to Long Covid after spending decades ignoring us. Welcome to hell, I guess? In the end, maybe we'll all finally get some answers. At least we're more on the map now.
I say *we* because I'm aware CFS/ME can make a nasty revisit to my life at any time. Like many, it struck me after a bad flu which then activated EBV, or I caught Mono while I had the flu, who knows. I'd never had Mono in 50 years before coming up with very high titers.
It's now 12 years later, & I thank whatever forces are out there I remain healthy. Able to think, read, exercise, find my car in the parking lot, leave my house at will, make it to the bathroom, wake up refreshed, climb- even run!- flights of stairs, tolerate noise & light (better at least), you know the drill. For years all of that was a dream, to live like a 'normal' person with routine activities that don't put you crashing in bed for days.
Like nearly everyone else here, I'm under enormous financial pressure right now, & today I'm reading through various threads here to drive it home to myself I can't push more than I am, that I need to remember to eat, because I'm underweight at this point. Rest, eat, breathe, rinse, repeat. 😆 Another key for me is not running myself ragged helping others. This may be the hardest lesson for me, to put myself first. Overcoming the female socialization that was strong growing up in the '60s & '70s.
Before anyone asks, once again, whether I was ever officially diagnosed by a physician, yes. And I return to this post each year with no "cure." I don't know what perfect storm caused my illness nor do I know what I did that worked effectively enough to cure it, or throw it into remission. It could have been nothing whatsoever I did. It may have resolved itself in spite of everything I did, like hundreds of $$ in supplements, herbs, teas, all that. Most doctors were useless in Iowa where I lived. Still furious about them.
Early this year I even worked doing heavy physical labor with hundreds of unmasked people at a warehouse. Thought for sure I'd catch Covid. Nope. When I was so sick way back, I used to drive myself *nuts* combing this site for what worked for others that made them feel better if only for a day or two. I still believe CFS/ME is the luck of the genetic draw, that something in my system caused my reaction both in getting sick, then recovering. If I could pin any of this recovery on anything, I certainly would post it here. It's scary to have no idea about or control over any of this life-altering misery. Especially infuriating to see how often the LC aren't believed, told it's all in their pretty little heads.
Until 2023, stay strong as best you can. Listen to your body, do what's right for YOU. 👷