Poll: In What Month Did You First Become Ill?

[rosie26]

September for me. Southern Hemisphere which is the Spring.

I think I will cross out my vote because I was a staged onset and I voted my severe onset month when I should have voted my mild onset month. I can't remember exactly the month of my mild onset but it is recorded at a doctors in town. I don't know whether they would still have my notes after 20 years. I should find out. I would like to know the exact year and month my mild started. I think it was around autumn/winter.

Edit: Both my mild and severe onsets were triggered by flu-like viruses.

 

[Antares in NYC]

Beginning of April, Northern hemisphere.
Then the next year I had a massive crash that left me bed-bound for months and started around September.

 

[jimmy86]

September, northern hemisphere.

 

[Battery Muncher]

Gradual onset, beginning end of January/ Early February, followed by semi-remission (with mild persistant flu-like symptoms), followed by full onset June. Trigger was a flu/virus.

Northern Hemisphere.

 

[L'engle]

September, north. Had just started a new year at university and got a bad flu.

 

[Gingergrrl]

I had two initial triggering events in March 2010 and then March 2012 but was able to recover from both. The final trigger that I did not recover from was in Jan 2013.

 

[Deltrus]

Lots of spikes in the fall and spring, both allergy seasons.

Also both seasons when viruses start spreading. Viruses have trouble thriving in heat because their protective coating is made of fat, which is how it protects itself until it reaches a warm human body.

 

[valentinelynx]

Hmm. Maybe poll could be reformulated to vote for what season your onset was, given the wide geographic spread of member locations?

I put March, although it could have been early April, which was spring in Northern California (nymph tick season) where I lived at the time. However, I had prior tick bites and likely EM rashes that occurred in the summertime, if my memory is correct - all I know for sure is I was wearing short pants at the time of the rashes, so it must have been fairly warm.

Maybe divide it up as early, mid, late Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter? That way, even if you live in a place where spring is quite late (like when I lived near Park City, Utah, the last snow could occur in May, so May could be called "early Spring" there, whereas here in Tucson, early Spring is January and by May we are already having 100 degree days!

 

[rosie26]

I've been looking through my old medical notes today and I think I have found the year my mild ME started and it looks like it was 1995 and in May. It was really interesting reading as well because I remember at the time I was studying and I had to leave a class because I was so unbelievably dizzy and unbalanced and I went straight to a doctor in town (not my usual GP). I remember having to go to my own GP a week later and he even wrote down that I had exams.

A year later I was unable to study again. My ME cognitive symptoms had kicked in severely.

So it looks like May for my mild onset and September for my severe onset.

 

[me/cfs 27931]

I've always wondered if my July onset at age 15 was triggered by an enterovirus. It had all the symptoms of what the CDC calls "Acute Flaccid Paralysis".

http://www.virology.ws/2014/02/27/polio-like-paralysis-in-california/
http://www.virology.ws/2014/10/07/acute-flaccid-paralysis-of-unknown-etiology-in-california/

Enterovirus reports peak from July-September.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5508a1.htm

 

[Sean]

Maybe poll could be reformulated to vote for what season your onset was, given the wide geographic spread of member locations?

Month, latitude, altitude, and climate, is potentially useful info.

For me that would be October, 12.5º S, sea level, and seasonal monsoon tropics.

 

[TigerLilea]

Mine started 25 years ago this week.

 

[Amaya2014]

Hi all...its been awhile since I posted. I voted January because following the flu vaccine I got a persistent cold or flu-like symptoms. Mid-February was my first crash and my first clue that something wasn't right.
Northern hemisphere.

 

[Old Bones]

Mine started 25 years ago this week.

How unfortunate that this is not the type of anniversary we can celebrate. You are not alone in remembering the exact week and number of years. I also "mark" the exact date I stopped working. Perhaps with the encouraging research efforts, you'll soon have another more positive anniversary on your calendar. I sincerely hope so -- for all of us.

 

[Never Give Up]

I've been watching the results and comments come in. I agree, more specificity in the possible answers would be more meaningful. I was thinking of changing the poll to include:

Summer, month 1
Summer, month 2
Summer, month 3
Fall, month 1
Fall, month 2
Fall, month 3
Winter, month 1
Winter, month 2
Winter, month 3
Spring, month 1
Spring, month 2
Spring, month 3

Do you have any better ideas?

 

[Never Give Up]

Month, latitude, altitude, and climate, is potentially useful info.

For me that would be October, 12.5º S, sea level, and seasonal monsoon tropics.

Yes, if only I were an epidemiologist...

 

[Never Give Up]

I've always wondered if my July onset at age 15 was triggered by an enterovirus. It had all the symptoms of what the CDC calls "Acute Flaccid Paralysis".

http://www.virology.ws/2014/02/27/polio-like-paralysis-in-california/
http://www.virology.ws/2014/10/07/acute-flaccid-paralysis-of-unknown-etiology-in-california/

Enterovirus reports peak from July-September.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5508a1.htm

Fascinating! It would be very interesting to compare monthly statistics of infection rates in each region each year with individual ME onset dates.

 

[rosie26]

@Never Give Up
It might pay to add Northern and Southern to each month of each season as well. It would be good to have the trigger as well like this:

Summer, month 1, northern, flu-like virus, June
Summer, month 1, southern, flu-like virus, December
Summer, month 1, northern, other trigger, June
Summer, month 1, southern, other trigger, December

Summer, month 2, northern, flu-like virus, July
Summer, month 2, southern, flu-liked virus, January
Summer, month 2, northern, other trigger, July
Summer, month 2 southern, other trigger, January

 

[Sean]

It might pay to add Northern and Southern to each month of each season as well.

If you provide latitude that defines which hemisphere, but with the additional info of how far into the hemisphere you are (or were at the time of getting sick).

This additional info has proved important in clarifying the risk to the general population of developing MS, independent of which hemisphere you are in.

 

[rosie26]

If you provide latitude that defines which hemisphere, but with the additional info of how far into the hemisphere you are (or were at the time of getting sick).

This additional info has proved important in clarifying the risk to the general population of developing MS, independent of which hemisphere you are in.

I always deteriorate in winter and both my onsets were a month before and a month after winter. It makes me wonder if I had lived in the tropics whether I would have had a slower progress with this illness than I have.