My seventh MORA treatment

I've had a good week.

My aches and pains are still on and off; but the good news is that they're more off than on these days.

I'm sleeping better.

My mind is clearer (I read the book Voyage of the Dawn Treader in one day! Granted, it's not a very challenging book, but still, you'd be hard-pressed finding another person with CFS who can finish a book in a day).

Also, I'm walking well around the house. I noticed that it's easier for me to get up from a chair these days. Because it used to take so much effort for me to get up from my seat, I used to plan what I was going to do every time I got up: I'd plan to go to the toilet, get a drink, pick up a remote, get a pen from the table... and invariably I'd forget to do one of those things, and it was a giant pain in the ass to have to get up again. Now I find it's not as big a deal if I forget something, because I can just get up again, with less difficulty than before.

Of course, I still have limits. If I had to get up from my seat five times in fives minutes, I'd probably tire myself out. My stamina is still poor, and I still suffer from sensory overload (ie. not being able to think with too many people talking at once).

But the nurse I've been seeing said I have to patient: I've been sick for a long time, so it's going to take a long time for me to get better. She said it's exciting that I'm improving already, and that I should remember not to push myself too much.

My sixth MORA treatment

This week's MORA treatment was much the same as last week's. I had the treatment, and the nurse asked me her usual questions.

I asked the nurse about the issue with my feet today. Since the onset of my CFS, I've had tender soles. I described it to the nurse as feeling like I've been walking on rocks with bare feet for hours. She asked me if the pain is in a specific place, or across the whole foot; I said the pain was across the whole foot. She said it sounds like hypersensitivity. When she asked the doctor about it, he increased my dose of vitamin B complex.

After the MORA treatment was over, the doctor and the nurse stuck two little stickers with tiny balls underneath them to two points on my arms. Apparently they're meant to prolong the effects of my treatment.

I guess what most of you would like to know is whether or not I'm feeling any better. On the whole, the answer is a definate yes. My muscle strength has improved, my energy has improved, and my sleeping has improved. Having said that, I'm still not very independent, small tasks are still taxing for me, and I'm not really functioning as a normal person should. But the important thing is that I have improved. (In a way, I hope that makes people realise just how debilitated I was a few months ago.) I'm still feeling a bit lousy from the colon cleanse, but like I said last week, after the colon cleanse is done, I hope I'll start picking up even more.

Why CFS is thoroughly frustrating

One aspect of CFS I find the most frustrating is not people who don't understand what CFS is, but people who almost resist trying to understand what CFS is.

I don't expect anyone to spend hours reading about CFS on the Internet. What I can't stand is when people ask: "What's wrong with you, exactly?" over and over again. And when I say "I have chronic fatigue syndrome" and explain it to them, they dismiss what I have to say, and ask me the same question again in a few months' time! It's thoroughly frustrating. At least five people I know are regular culprits of this.

One that I'll call "H" is the most exasperating to deal with. She cares about me, but she doesn't seem to realise just now debilitating CFS is. She seems to think that I'm just depressed. And that is the most annoying attitude anyone can deal with.

Not only do I have a mysterious, invisible, debilitating disease; I have to battle with people who think I'm just depressed as well.