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Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.
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Mon ame, my husband has a co-worker that has been off work for months with intense vertigo. The doctors keep telling him it's just vertigo but he went for a cat scan yesterday, we'll see if they find anything. I asked if he had any MS symptoms, never thought of ME/CFS.
My ME/CFS started with a regular case of the flu--the headaches, sore throat, sore lymph nodes, achy muscles, but when I look back, I really had some symptoms or maybe you could say pre-symptoms before then.
I has acute onset, combined with flu like symptoms. But I'm convinced it wasnt viral in my case. In my case I think it was a perfect storm type scenario all occurring with the months of getting CFS:- too many hours working (80+ per week), some relationship problems, some finance problems, some domestic problems with flat mates, some work problems, another unrelated health scare, lots of antibiotics, a poor diet, and big shift in training to long runs which i wasnt used to. At the time i thought I had flu, but I had no fever or raised temperature. In hindsight my gut feeling is my body had simply had enough and caved in. I think in isolation I would have coped with most of these fine, the emotional problems didnt even make me unhappy, just very angry, and for perhaps a 2-3 month period everything was just ramped up in my life, and couldnt escape it. Funny thing is I didnt even think I was stressed at the time. My response to any problem has just been to bull through it. With CFS that hasnt worked.
I had a gradual onset of 7 years, looking back I can remember all the mild symptoms that used to quietly bother me. I just didn't know then that I was on my way down with ME.
I was getting mild off/on symptoms of ME. I was able to work full time.
But during those 7 years life sped up for me and I think because of that, it set me on track for a high speed crash into Severe ME.
6 months before my collapse my sleep packed up, I was waking at 3am high wired with an awful agitated poisoned feeling in my body, vertigo and nausea started to increase, feverishness, headaches and unusual exhaustion.
I deteriorated rapidly from this 6 month point when my sleep became affected. I caught a nasty flu at this point which I think finally took me down completely and was thrown into the nightmare of bedridden unbearable ME
Often when I hear of the sudden viral/flu onset I wonder if they took anti-biotics to combat this flu? Anti-biotics being high point scorers on candida questionairres are definitely triggers to full blown M.E. Was it the flu or the treatment taken to combat it that triggered illness? I'd bet that if you asked many who think they had viral onset, whether they took anti-biotics for the intial problem, they'd say yes.
I got ill following a visit to the dentist and having a mercury filling. That said I hadn't felt right for a few years.