Countrygirl
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WARNING: DISTRESSING NEWS.
This week there was, amazingly, a good article on ME in the Daily Mail online about ME.
Tragically, however, on Tuesday, 31-year-old Jennifer, who was one of the three people who had their stories told, died.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7015737/Three-patients-reveal-accusations-endured.html
This week there was, amazingly, a good article on ME in the Daily Mail online about ME.
Tragically, however, on Tuesday, 31-year-old Jennifer, who was one of the three people who had their stories told, died.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7015737/Three-patients-reveal-accusations-endured.html
It's a controversial condition that has been swept under the carpet for decades amid claims that it is merely psychological.
Instead, the now-proven truth is myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is physical - and not just made up by mentally-ill patients.
Millions of lives around the world are being destroyed by the unrelenting condition, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
Sufferers are often left house-bound, confined to their beds, reliant on feeding tubes and even needing help to get them in the shower.
But, despite evidence proving it is real coming to the forefront, ME remains incurable and dozens of people wrongly think it is just 'laziness'.
In the hope of ending ignorance surrounding the crippling ailment, MailOnline has heard from three long-standing sufferers.
Heartbreakingly, they revealed how doctors have blamed them for wasting their time, branded them attention-seekers and told their condition doesn't exist.
I have been treated like a hypochondriac for a decade - now my condition is worse than ever
Before being struck down by ME, Jennifer Chittick was out-going, hard-working and excited about her future as a primary school teacher.
Now, a decade after falling ill, the 31-year-old is weaker than ever, completely bed-bound and reliant on her retired parents to care for her.
During her agonising battle to get diagnosed, doctors repeatedly dismissed her debilitating symptoms as being merely a product of her imagination.
And she claims this delay, fuelled by ignorance among the medical community, is the reason she is as poorly as she is today.
Ms Chittick, from Glasgow, said: 'Throughout my time with ME, the treatment I've received from doctors has been deplorable.
'I am treated like a hypochondriac and an inconvenience, a blinkered patient who refuses to get the help her doctors believe she needs.'
]In March 2010, she collapsed at home and was whisked away to an unnamed hospital – the three days she spent there were 'amongst the worst of my life'.
Ms Chittick claims to have heard cruel nurses mutter the phrase 'attention-seeker' under their breath when they walked past her laying helplessly in bed.
And before she discharged with no answers to her ailment, medics allegedly refused to help her sit up in bed, give her water or even let her shower.
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