Life carries on. Handling life, with all the ups and downs, still living fully with CFS!

Due to circumstances I will keep private, the start of 2015 as a newlywed has changed to a separated woman with her first condo! My ex and I split in March, after only a year of marriage. To say this is unfortunate is an understatement for 2015. I am now focusing on healing my heart, health and mind, rebuilding my life. 

Our marriage was rocky from inception; this lead to stress, bad habit triggers and more stress. This stressful situation brought on symptoms of various degrees. I “enjoyed” (insert sarcasm!) frequent nausea, including the joyous vomiting I do not usually get with my nausea (and no, I did not feel better after throwing up), almost daily low grade fevers, general fatigue, mild depression and different aches/pains. 

Since our split, my nausea is down to a rarity, no more vomiting and aches and pains are the typical ones I’ve experienced for years plus new ones due to a more active exercise lifestyle. Fevers are still frequent, an annoyance but dissipating as time moves forward in my life. Through it all, I continued my health and well-being quest – releasing 110 pounds from January 2013 to April 2015. 😀

I do not have pictures specifically from when I started my weight transformation but here are a sampling of photos over the past decade. 

    Now in April 2015:   

 As with everyone, life is a journey. I am determined to keep focus on respecting myself which includes caring for my entire being: body, mind and soul. I am a single woman again; this does not equate to a lesser life but lessons learned. As long as I honor myself truly, I will continue to have a happy life, no matter what is thrown at me. I will continue to grow as a strong, energized (even in mind only sometimes!). 

I am ready to explore what is around the next corner! 

 

Reflections Then and Now: A Typical Day (what is that?!)

Today I got up at 4:15 am (on purpose) because I have a busy at work and need to catch up on things, or at least have 2-3 hours before the meetings begin. As I drove the 45 minute commute, I thought how much my world has changed since 1988 when my symptoms first began. Back then, I was in high school, working part-time in the family janitorial business and doing hours of volunteer work. When I got sick, I began sleeping in – as you saw by my first sentence – not a common thing in my world. I could not stay awake. I came home, if I made it to school, exhausted. I fell asleep, Mom woke me up for supper, and then after eating, I was back asleep until the next morning. This went on with numerous doctor appointments, school discussions, etc. trying to figure out what was going on with my exhaustion.

Fortunately, around a year after my symptoms began, I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. in this post, I will not go through the roller coaster of exhaustion, insomnia and years of herbal remedies, diets and various methods we used to give me some energy and relief of symptoms.Eventually, I was able to stay awake and live off between 4 – 7 hours a sleep most nights. Currently, this is still the average amount of sleep I get nightly. On this schedule, I’ve been working full-time since 2001, and most of the time have some sort of extra-curricular volunteer, part-time job and/or social life.

Today, I work 5 days a week, 7 – 8 hours per day, more hours when needed, write in my spare time, include time for many other hobbies and interests. I have a busy career, active life and work out a few times a week at my own pace. There are many more things I plan to do in my life: I intend to write full-time and leave this working for someone else (as satisfying as it is; truly it is!) so I can travel and pursue my other interests.

It’s been about 27 years since I began sleeping 18-22 hours a day. I am extremely grateful I can manage my symptoms enough to lead a full life and I will continue to listen to my body; feed it what it needs spiritually, emotionally and physically. I take one day at a time and treat my symptoms as it comes. Rest when I need to rest or as soon as I can get home. I appreciate the energy I have, the family and friends and support and I look forward to my future adventures!

 

Hello world!

Welcome to my new blog, Life with CFS!

What is this about? Just what it sounds like – living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I’ve had the disease (and for you non-believers, I’m here to tell you it is a real disease), since I was 15 years old. I had to quit high school, literally slept through most of my teenage years and have been through many ups and downs.

The first two years alone I slept 18-22 hours a day. Here’s the good news – I’ve been working full-time for the past 9 years. I even have the energy to have a social life, do mild exercise and sometimes volunteer. I’ve tried many things, different products, diets, everything under the sun. This is not a blog to promote a particular product (though I’ve got some that I use) but to share what has worked for me.

I live a full life. I”m happy. I enjoy good relationships with close family members and very good friends. This blog is to share my story and maybe give people in the throes of this debilitating disease some hope.