Doctor's appointment, May 2008

I had another doctor's appointment today, with Dr D.

Because I've had such a rough month, he's decided to increase my drug dosage again. We're going to go up in steps, increasing by one more tablet each week.

The reason he went down last time is because I got an internal tear, so he's also prescribed some other drugs to soften my stool.

We asked him what his plan B and C are, and he said they're just different drugs that do the same thing the drug I'm currently on does, but in a different way. Since we're making a bit of progress with the first drug, he decided we'll give it a go for another month.

There wasn't an opportune moment to bring up Dr Wright's protocol. I came across Dr Wright's protocol in an online CFS forum; a few people said they followed the protocol, and recovered.

Dr Wright's protocol makes sense to me. He thinks there's three factors that cause chronic fatigue: stress, immune dysfunction, and chronic infection. And right at the start, I was diagnosed with mycoplasma pneumoniae, which is a bacteria on Dr Wright's list of bacteria that can cause chronic infection...

But I'm pretty sure Dr D sits firmly in a different camp. He thinks that chronic fatigue syndrome is brought on by the virus I got initially (I got a bad virus before getting mycoplasma), and that the virus messes up the connection between your brain cells. As a result, your brain tells you that your body is aching, etc. when there's no reason for it to be.

Anyway, I decided that Dr D isn't going to suggest any ways to cope with my symptoms. I've been seeing him for about seven or eight months now, and at each visit, when I ask how what I can do to help lessen my symptoms, his answer is to just take the drugs.

So, one of my awesome friends suggested that I should visit the CFS support centre in Melbourne. I think A and I will be driving there tomorrow to have a look at what they can offer.

This is a good time to tell you guys how fantastic one of my friends (we'll call her "C") has been. She's given me so many helpful suggestions, she's been emotionally supportive, and she's never had any prejudice against the illness (like so many other people have). I'm really lucky to have her as a friend; I feel so much better because of her.