Onset of Symptoms

[Forbin]

Hey everyone. I just wanted to start a threat about how symptoms started. I know this is a topic that is talked about all the time, but I had a flu like sickness and got better, I felt pretty much normal but I had strange symptoms start around two months later beginning headaches and vision changes. Followed by UTI and others the month or so after that and fatigue setting in.

Did anybody else have an onset like this? I'm asking because it seems like most people just got sick and never really recovered fully.

Thanks

Vanguard, what you describe is very similar to my onset. I came down with the worst sore throat/flu of my life in the spring of 1983. It was bad for a couple of days and then I felt that I was recovering. I went back to work and soon felt I had fully recovered.

About two weeks later, I noticed vague indications that something was off with my vision somewhat like the effect you get when putting on a new pair of prescription lenses. Things seemed just a little distorted toward the edge of my field of view at times. I ignored it.

Exactly 21 days after the onset of the flu, however, I was spending a very enjoyable afternoon with some friends when I suddenly became very dizzy out of the blue. It felt somewhat like food poisoning at first, but the dizziness seemed to retreat after the first day. Then it came back the next day and stayed. Within days, a cascade of other symptoms followed, including weakness in the limbs and a continual sensation of flu-like immune activation. A blood test showed slightly elevated lymphs.

Within a month I was hospitalized by a neurologist. All he could find was a mildly elevated spinal protein reading and an insignificant indication of mitral valve prolapse. Over the next couple of years I developed several other symptoms including gastro-intestinal problems and severe headaches, the likes of which Id never experienced before. I lived in Southern California at the time, and this all started about a year before the Lake Tahoe outbreak began.

At any rate, the odd interlude of recovery between the flu and the out of the blue onset of symptoms is something I too have wondered about.

 

[mellster]

I think there are 2 things going on producing symptoms, one is chronic viral activation and true viral symptoms and the other is increased cytokine inflammation from the immune system as a reaction to stress/exertion. And I'd bet it's actually hard to distinguish those two, and it can easily become a vicious cycle. Although we all have slightly different stories, there are enough similarities here.

 

[Battery Muncher]

Vanguard, what you describe is very similar to my onset. I came down with the worst sore throat/flu of my life in the spring of 1983. It was bad for a couple of days and then I felt that I was recovering. I went back to work and soon felt I had fully recovered.

About two weeks later, I noticed vague indications that something was off with my vision somewhat like the effect you get when putting on a new pair of prescription lenses. Things seemed just a little distorted toward the edge of my field of view at times. I ignored it.

Exactly 21 days after the onset of the flu, however, I was spending a very enjoyable afternoon with some friends when I suddenly became very dizzy out of the blue. It felt somewhat like food poisoning at first, but the dizziness seemed to retreat after the first day. Then it came back the next day and stayed. Within days, a cascade of other symptoms followed, including weakness in the limbs and a continual sensation of flu-like immune activation. A blood test showed slightly elevated lymphs.

Within a month I was hospitalized by a neurologist. All he could find was a mildly elevated spinal protein reading and an insignificant indication of mitral valve prolapse. Over the next couple of years I developed several other symptoms including gastro-intestinal problems and severe headaches, the likes of which Id never experienced before. I lived in Southern California at the time, and this all started about a year before the Lake Tahoe outbreak began.

At any rate, the odd interlude of recovery between the flu and the out of the blue onset of symptoms is something I too have wondered about.

This post is excellent and pretty much describes how I experienced the onset of symptoms as well.

 

[BurnA]

Vanguard, what you describe is very similar to my onset. I came down with the worst sore throat/flu of my life in the spring of 1983. It was bad for a couple of days and then I felt that I was recovering. I went back to work and soon felt I had fully recovered.

About two weeks later, I noticed vague indications that something was off with my vision somewhat like the effect you get when putting on a new pair of prescription lenses. Things seemed just a little distorted toward the edge of my field of view at times. I ignored it.

Exactly 21 days after the onset of the flu, however, I was spending a very enjoyable afternoon with some friends when I suddenly became very dizzy out of the blue. It felt somewhat like food poisoning at first, but the dizziness seemed to retreat after the first day. Then it came back the next day and stayed. Within days, a cascade of other symptoms followed, including weakness in the limbs and a continual sensation of flu-like immune activation. A blood test showed slightly elevated lymphs.

Within a month I was hospitalized by a neurologist. All he could find was a mildly elevated spinal protein reading and an insignificant indication of mitral valve prolapse. Over the next couple of years I developed several other symptoms including gastro-intestinal problems and severe headaches, the likes of which Id never experienced before. I lived in Southern California at the time, and this all started about a year before the Lake Tahoe outbreak began.

At any rate, the odd interlude of recovery between the flu and the out of the blue onset of symptoms is something I too have wondered about.

I have similar story... After a sore throat / cold like virus, which then went away, almost exactly 21 days after it first appeared I was hit with me/cfs.