I was diagnosed with ME in 2017. A diagnosis came after 6 long years of suffering with varying pain. One day I was able the next I was not.
My pain originated from injury which was localised and then became generalised to almost all muscles and joints. Secondary to the pain is fatigue. Feeling like I’m walking through tar after being hit by a bus.
Not only is there pain and fatigue there’s so many things with ME people don’t talk about such as the headaches, the heat sensitivity, temperature fluctuations, allodynia, brain fog, confusion, PEM and so on.
I was only 13 or 14 when everything began and I was very much disbelieved about the severity of my condition. It took a long time and it was a long journey of trying different doctors from physio, OT, rheumatology, chiropractors, pain clinics, MRI scans, x-rays, multiple medications which all failed to help the pain to finally get to a clinic which diagnosed me with classic ME. This along with hypermobiity meant a few years being investigated and being signed off work whilst we all figured out what was going on and how best to manage it.
Everyday is a fight. Not knowing how “well” I’m going to be tomorrow.
But I have my 4 year old daughter who needs me. She’s why I fight each day. I work part time. It’s really difficult at times but I have to remind myself why I do it. I’ve come a long way in the years since my diagnosis but there’s still more I need to do to find what helps me and my symptoms.
I’m thankful to charities such as this and hope that one day there will be a miracle for us all x