This blog has been very helpful to me during the worst times of my illness. It has been there when I was feeling like my life was going nowhere and when the ignorance of others (particularly the medical profession) has been overwhelming. While I am not cured I am a great deal better and am nearing the end of my degree which means that maybe it is time to say goodbye to my blog. I may one day need to return to Real Life Sisyphus to help me get through new life challenges created by having a chronic illness but for now I feel the need to call time on this blog. I hope that it has helped others understand the life of those with CFS/ME or help sufferers understand their illness better. Very little information is out there and the honesty of other blogs has helped me very much to understand where I stood and how to manage my symptoms.
I would like to end on a cycle that I have realised as a result of a lecture recently on chronic pain (in the context of a clinical psychology module).
It appears that chronic pain is viewed in a similar way to chronic fatigue by the medical profession. Chronic pain is generally considered to be pain that is long lasting but without the presence of anything that actually causes pain. While the causes of physical pain are complex and very little is understood, generally the view is that chronic pain is caused by a person being afraid of using a particular muscle or joint because they fear the consequent pain - which in turn leads to the muscle or joint stiffening and becoming painful. Psychologists believe this leads to a vicious cycle in which the patient doesn't use their painful muscle or joint because they think it will hurt, causing it to hurt, causing them to not use it and so on.
I know very little about this cycle, definitely not enough to comment on how accurate it is but I do know two things. The first is that if you look at research into treatments for chronic pain based on this theory, they generally don't work. The second is that this sounds remarkably similar to the medical profession's views on chronic fatigue: fatigue is caused by not exercising due to the fear of exercising, not exercising leads to muscle atrophy and fatigue, fatigue leads to not exercising and so on. I know this second view to be rubbish, partly because treatments for fatigue based on this paradigm also don't work, and partly because I have attempted to push through my fatigue before (believing it myself to be simply muscle atrophy and laziness) which made my illness much worse.
This perspective of the medical profession leads to the belief that CFS/ME sufferers have 'untrue' and 'unhelpful' beliefs concerning their fatigue such as 'All doctors are arrogant/lazy (insert your favourite adjective here!)', 'I feel horrible so something must be really wrong', 'Doctors should work to cure me because I am sick'. Personally I think all of those, maybe I am crazy really.
But on the other hand, if doctors have this perspective they will talk to patients in a way that actually encourages these thoughts in some cases. I have had doctors not talk straight with me about my symptoms regularly which confirms the first belief for example. Where doctors believe that you are almost making it all up, they are naturally going to talk to you in a condescending way and not take you entirely seriously, despite their best efforts to appear sincere. This behaviour then causes the "untrue" and "unhelpful" beliefs, confirming the doctor's perspective of the patient. So maybe I'm not crazy? Maybe my "unhelpful" beliefs are the result of my doctor, not my illness?? My cynicism of doctors is definitely something that has developed very recently and way after my illness started.
Having said the above, I have met the odd very helpful and straight-talking doctors and medical professionals:
- my physiotherapist at my university doctors surgery, who helped me with pacing and not letting my illness hold me back
- Dr. Bansal at the Epsom and St. Helier hospital
- the CFS/ME team at Sutton Hospital
- the lovely nurses at my university doctors surgery, who have given me my B12 injections with little fuss and pain.
Thanks to all of the above, as well as the many friends and family members who have supported me during my worst times, despite many attempts to push them away through letting out my frustrations and fear. You are all amazing.
