January 11th 1991, age 10 - I went to school feeling crappy, and came home with what seemed like gastroenteritis mixed with glandular fever/mono. I went from standing in the morning to bed-bound in the evening. I never recovered.
In hindsight my mum says I was ailing for approximately 2 years before I got actually obviously sick. I remember in the 3 months before I got acutely sick, I was doing an extra tuition class (for an entrance exam) at primary school and I had extremely bad cognitive dysfunction. For example, I suddenly couldn't do maths tasks that I had previously been able to do, such as fractions and long division. Being a 10 year old, I didn't understand what was wrong and I didn't mention it to my mum as I thought I was just thicker than the other students
. I also felt unusually tired during those after-school sessions. which was unusual as I was typically very bouncy and full of energy. I remember feeling quite confused. Prior to this I had developed a weird swelling of my hands, and I also had started to sweat and need a deodorant age 8, which was not normal for children in my family.
Anyway, after being bed bound and then later on housebound during the initial acute period of January through August, in the September I started at secondary school. I somehow completed my GCSEs, and did 3 A levels (awful results). I went to school about half the time for every year except one, when I was off the entire year dealing with an ovarian cyst and laparotomy. My attendance would usually be something like: go in for one week, be off for two... or in for 2 days, off for 2 days etc.
I went to university, and managed to do that because I was very supported - had catered halls of residence for 4 years and other stuff to help me.... By the time I finished, I was bed bound again (I don't regret it as it was one of the few good/normal things that I have done since getting sick, but I am sure that completing my education reduced my chances of recovery).
After spending some time recovering from university, I was pretty much forced into a part time job by the local job centre. I worked for 6 months. It was a nightmare. I was so ill and I hated the job because it was a very stressful front line position dealing with vulnerable people and irate members of the public (one of the worst jobs I could have been given really). By the time I finished that, I crashed and was bed bound again. I was then signed off for a couple of years.
I spent from 2006-2008 trying to be normal, and ended up with a whole host of other health problems outside of M.E. Since 2006 when I tried to work again, I have been progressively worsening with a brief respite of around 8 months when I took LDN and the progression stopped. I continued taking it, hoping it would leap into action but LDN stopped working for me, and I eventually came off it in the autumn (I'm hoping to retry it in the spring, and perhaps trick my body into thinking I've never taken it).
On a side note - I find it extremely difficult to read about how young people/children that get M.E. have a high/good chance of recovery, and the same for M.E. sufferers who contract it after/from glandular fever/mono. I feel as if I drew the short straw! I mean... I had 2 key aspects to this illness that mean I should have recovered, and here I am... blah!