M.E awareness week.

Just to let you know it is international M.E awareness day today (may 12th), and M.E awareness week runs from may 9th-16th.
If you want to find out more about M.E then you can visit http://www.ayme.org.uk/.

My very first post! what is M.E?

Well, i guess i should start off by telling you what M.E actually is. So here's all the technical jargon.

M.E stands for myalgic encephalopathy. It is also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), post viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS) and was once called yuppie flu.

M.E effects over 250,000 people in the UK.

M.E doesn't discriminate between ages, races or genders anyone can get it. The most common causes are illness, stress or bereavement.

There are a wide number of symptoms including fatigue (utter exhaustion often to the point of collapse), loss of memory, loss of concentration, recurring sore throats, tender glands, muscle and joint pains, headaches of a new type, pattern or severity, often sufferers have a feeling of having brain fog, unrefreshing sleep, post exertional malaise (feeling very unwell after exercise or activity) lasting more than 24 hours, dizziness, body temperature disturbances (feeling hot when every else feels cold and cold when everyone feels hot) and nausea. Some sufferers are so extremely effected they are bedridden and light, noise, smells and even talking to someone for a few minutes can utterly exhaust them. There are many other symptoms and if i wrote them all we'd be here all night.

No two people have the same symptoms and the same experiences with M.E.

There is no known cure. Complete rest can lesson the severity of the condition and many people can return to their lives the way it was beforehand, though this can take anything from one year to four but with some people it can take ten years or more and others never recover completely.

M.E is very debilitating and isolating. Many sufferers have to put their lives and careers on hold for an estimated amount of time and purely concentrate on rest which can often lead to depression.

Even though M.E has been a recognised medical condition since 2002 many doctors simply refuse to believe it exists and insist it is 'all in the mind'. Which to a sufferer is extremely upsetting and insulting.

Many people are unable to understand the day to day complexities of this terrible illness. Even to a sufferer M.E is very confusing, as you feel things you've never felt before and trying to rationally explain to people how you feel is very difficult.

But it's not all doom and gloom. M.E can make you see what's important in life.

OK that's enough waffling for now:). Thank you for reading my first post.