G4 Star, Jonathan Ansell Has CFS/ME

[PlateletGal]

I know that ME exists ... I suffer from it twice a year, says G4 star Jonathan Ansell

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1102134/I-know-ME-exists---I-suffer-twice-year-says-G4-star-Jonathan-Ansell.html

[Phtartist]

As my doctor sees it, I get run down with stress being my biggest enemy, my immune system weakens and my EBV and mycoplasma rises in strength a bit. She has shown me my numbers with constant blood tests.

My antibodies are there but they lower and the active virus and bacteria numbers rise. That coincides with low grade fever, headache, weakness, muscle aches, sore throat (mild) all over weakness.  The "brain" part of it is in the Hippocampus part of the brain that is affected by this illness.  In people it progressivly shrinks and their cognitive function as far as memory, mostly short term at first declines.  For us it is periodic, short circuits in that area , not progressive shrinkage that causes the same affect.
Fibro fog,

[VaBreeze]

Kiddthekatt just gave me a flashback in time.  I had totally forgotten about the incident of tonsillitis that I had as a young teenager.  My fever was so high I was rushed from a camping event with my friends to the emergency room for treatment.  I had bouts of tonsillitis for a few years, but never with the high fever.  I have been able to trace the FMS back to my teenage years and am wondering now if that is what set it off.  

They say that FMS is not a progressive illness, but I don't agree.  As i've aged, it has gotten worse. Perhaps it is because I was healthier back then; that I notice it more today.  Also, it seems that since i've had the three surgeries within a 1 1/2 yr. period, that it has changed to more CFS-like symptoms...so I now feel that I have both illnesses.

I totally agree with Phtartist.  It is more of a 'brain' illness than a 'mental' illness.  Totally wrong choice of words for the article.

[PlateletGal]

The majority of CFS & fibromyalgia patients do have mycoplasma (L-form bacteria) infections. How long were you on the Marshall Protocol ? What are your symptoms and which tests and/or possible diseases has your physician ruled out ?


http://www.immed.org/illness/fatigue_illness_research.html

[CHRISSY51979]

When I was diagnosed with FM/CFS a few years ago i was told it was due to a traumatic event that occured a few weeks before onset, and i believed that to be the truth, it was the only plausible idea anyone had presented to me. Then about 2 years ago I met a dr that said it was all due to a bacteria that attaches itself to your cells or something and she totally pushed some Marshall Protocal as the cure all for everything if I just followed it exact. No luck there!
Feeling aweful 99% of the time and constantly being over-medicated has just become a norm for my life but not knowing why is driving me nuts! I guess i think if they could figure what causes it they can figure out how to fix me. So I can be a normal mom, wife and person again! I wonder daily if the traumatic event that happened to me in 2005 hadn't occured if my life would be different right now. Or if there was something else that brought it on that could have been averted.
Is it all in our "brain". Or maybe like my doc said, its in my cells, or it was just aggitated, surfaced or was brought on due to an illness, which i also had (bacterial meningitis in 2002). Similar to kiddthekatt had happen in childhood. But till that question can be answered, like mentioned above, i will try to take it easy and end up over doing it in the end. The never ending cycle of fatigue!
Also, i'd like to thank everyone here, for all of the help you have given me by just posting on here, i appreciate it so much!

[kiddthekatt]

  My internist told me last week that he had been doing a lot of research on FM/CFS. He believes it is a disease, and he believes that it is caused from infections for one. He asked me had I ever been really sick, not a cold or runny nose, but really sick. I told him that I had been very sick with Scarlet Fever when I was 5 years old. I remember being so sick and was kept in a dark room, with no visitors. And if I'm not mistaken, it was about the same time that I started having horrible leg cramps.

   It really made me feel good knowing that he is trying to find a way to help those of us who are suffering from FM/CFS. He has also been in close contact with my Rheumy and had told him he had started me on pain meds. So the two of them are both working together for me. He also upped my Zoloft by 50mg. Now if I can just settle down and get over this flare, what am I saying? Just as soon as I start feeling better, I'll overdo and be down again......:(


gentle hugs
Angel

[PlateletGal]

Unfortunately there are still many people who doubt that CFS is real. These ignorant people are just like the same people who dismissed that MS was real and this is what happens as a result:

ME/CFS - Doctors disbelief kills young woman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y_T5ylWUv4&feature=related

There is still research funding that is still focused on trying to relate depression to CFS. The same goes for fibromyalgia..... that is why I always recommend printing the latest scientific research and taking it with you to your physician. It is said that physicians are 10-15 years behind on research.

[Phtartist]

The writer was trying to be cute in quoting the "its all in the head" phrase.  I posted a comment as to that.  It should have been "its all in the brain".  Anyone reading that and not thoroughly understanding the illness (not you) might think the writer is saying it is all a psychological illness which would set those minds back to the ice ages.

I hope it went through.

It actually (the article) helped me to know how vast this illness is.  My world seems so small, it isn't.  

My symptoms mimic the G4 guys to a T.  Early on I had bouts that lasted a short bit and then I would have even a year without symptoms.  Now I have a year of symptoms and 2 days symptom free.
I had recently compiled ME info for my Dr.  FM no longer fits for me. My criteria and symptoms are much less mysterious and exactly what is described for ME.  

Lucky for me, one of my pain meds chases fatigue. I am able to function slightly in the realm of all the symptoms that I have.

What disturbs me most is the neuro symptoms. scary. It is all in my brain!

Thank you

[RobinHood70]

If you read the section closer to the bottom, they compare it to something like Parkinson's, which is technically largely a problem in the brain, but with very obvious physical effects.  I don't know that this is necessarily correct, or even the only possible manifestation of CFS, but it does make it much more credible than the type of mental illness where what they mean is "it's all in your head".

[VaBreeze]

"Current thinking suggests that CFS is a physical and mental illness and in ten per cent of cases, according to CFS charity Action For Me, its onset, as in Jonathan's case, seems linked to a severe viral infection, such as glandular fever, hepatitis, or parvovirus."

The article was great, but i'm a bit upset that they have suggested it being a mental illness.  Are they saying that it is the cause of mental illness or are they still in the dark ages with their thinking?