kadyellebee

I’m Kristine, and I’m 26 years old. I haven’t officially been diagnosed with CFS yet, but my symptoms fit all of the characteristics. I’ve been dealing with these symptoms severely since 1 year ago. When I look back though, I’ve been dealing with some of the symptoms since the middle of college (around 96) and then more intensely around the time of my wedding (2000). I have a wonderful husband who takes care of me, and is being so open to my need for extra rest and being at home.

Over the last 9 months, I’ve had to go from a full time position (45+hours a week) to working being able to work a few hours a week from home. For the most part, I’m resting and doing small jobs here and there. I have been working since I was 14 on at least a part time basis, and have always been a perfectionist/typeA personality in my work habits - I have always enjoyed working. I have been slowly developing my own business (website design), and I’m continuing to do a bit of this as I can. My people skills are something that has been failing - phone calls and group conversations are overwhelming to me, and I feel the most in a fog then. Luckily, I haven’t found working on the computer to cause me too many problems.

I am in a lot of pain, but since I haven’t been diagnosed with anything specific, I’m only on Zoloft for anxiety. It actually did cut down the frequency of my arms and legs falling asleep on me. My headaches are fairly constant - I almost always have one. But worst of all, I’m so worn out all the time. I need at least 13 hours of sleep a day, and I still never feel refreshed. And if I extend myself too much, I need more. So my 2 biggest problems because of the illness are the loss of my people skills and the exhaustion.

My current coping tool is rest. If I take enough naps and lay on the couch for rest periods between things, I can make it through the day, and sometimes even deal with a few of the household responsibilities. The other coping tool - letting go of some of the tasks and letting my husband deal with them. Its hard for me, because I feel "obligated" but, that’s gonna be an important part of dealing with this. Oh, and I have an online journal that not only helps me keep track of my health, but I’m part of a community of other journallers and that helps for support.

I look forward to meeting each of you, and getting some great tips on dealing with this myself, as doctors haven’t been super helpful yet.