CFS Awareness

So I never thought I'd be saying this, but thank you to Dr. Oz! A few months ago, he did a segment on fatigue, and had a doctor who's known for work on CFS there, but framed CFS--either intentionally or not--as the same kind of fatigue that results from bad eating habits, no exercise, and too much stress--like it could be fixed by just "being healthy." So, the CFS community was a little mad at him. But, today, he did a segment on his show highlighting CFS and talking about the XMRV retrovirus that researchers now think cause CFS. He had a doctor come and explain the symptoms of CFS and also a CFS sufferer. While it wasn't the most inclusive or best treatment of CFS I've seen, I'm really glad that he did the segment just because it's bringing CFS into the public eye and making people realize that it's a real, serious, and horribly debilitating disease, not just something that's "inconvenient" or--worse--"in our heads."

There's a great list that I came across through a CFS forum I'm a part of called "10 things not to say to someone with CFS." The funny part was, I had been to the hospital for a medical test earlier that day, and the technician said a ton of those things to me. It was pretty annoying. Things like, "well, I think everyone would be claiming they had that" when I told her about the symptoms--the extreme fatigue, memory problems, and muscle/joint pain. I tried to reply nicely (after all, I was going to spend two hours with this woman), but when she also said things like, "Well, I thought that it was the kind of thing they didn't think existed," it got frustrating. Thankfully, she dropped the subject quickly.

I hope more people will come to realize that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a real and horrible disease and that the people who have it need sympathy from their friends and attention from doctors, not questioning and skepticism.