I was diagnosed with ME/ chronic fatigue syndrome about four years ago now, but I think I had been ill for about 18 months before I was finally diagnosed. Initially both my parents and my GP thought that I was attention seeking, but after a while they just didn’t know what was wrong with me… And to be honest I am not surprised. Very little seems to be known about ME, it is one of those illnesses that can easily be overlooked, and for people that suffer from ME, this is almost as frustrating as the illness itself. If anything, when I was bed ridden it was the fact that no-one believed or understood that I was genuinely ill that was the soul destroying thing. To spend so much energy on doing basic things like going the toilet, only to be accused of being lazy hurts.

        ME can destroy a persons life, and ultimately dictate how they must live their lives. I was lucky because I was able to make the choice that I wasn’t going to be beaten by ME. I feel that I am a lucky person because I have an insight on life that some people my age don’t have. I have a chronic illness, and instead of restricting my life it has opened my eyes a great deal. I suppose I am slightly grateful for what I have and am going through. It has made me a stronger person.

        ME is not simply feeling tired all the time, it has a profound affect on pretty much every aspect of a persons life. People with ME have a weaker immune system, so they get sick a lot, and it take longer to recover from a simple cold or stomach bug. A lot of us also have problems walking etc. because our muscles had wasted. Weight is an issue too, as it is difficult to chew. I remember that for a long time I was incapable of feeding myself. Another symptom that I am finding is becoming more of an issue for me is sight. I could go on forever about symptoms, as there are so many of them; and they change throughout the different stages of the illness.

I am not going to provide any scientific reasoning or explanations as I find them annoying. I can’t stand being told how I feel or what is wrong with me by a doctor who has read a few books and attended a few seminars. They think they know everything and are not prepared to listen. So anything I write here is purely my own opinion of how I have been/and still am treated. I know that every sufferer is different, so I cannot speak for everyone, but only myself. I am very fortunate because I have managed to improve my stamina to a point where I have been able to claw back a lot of my independence. I have passed my GCSEs (I took 5 of them that equated to 7), I got three A*s, three As and a B; and can now look forward to college. I have worked hard to get these grades, as have my teachers. All of which went out of their way to help me.

        I was referred to a paediatrician who I had to visit every couple of months. All she did was ask me how active I had been, tell me I needed to better and send me off for a blood test. When I turned 16 I decided to no longer attend hospital appointments, as I felt I was not gaining anything from them. There was nothing they could do for me, do I decided to stop wasting my time and their’s. I have been able to do this because for the past two years I have been handling my ME myself. In retrospect, maybe I should have been more patient with them. So I wouldn’t recommend people that have only just been diagnosed with ME to do what I did.          

        There are all sorts of homeopathic treatments, but I cannot honestly say that any of the ones I have tried really work. Some people say they control ME through diet; but in my opinion, people that can control their ME through diet didn’t have ME in the first place. They were just not eating properly. To combat some of the symptoms I have tried various things, including hydrotherapy. Which I found counterproductive, as it left me exhausted for up to a week after a single session. However, recently a cause for ME has been identified. So a possible treatment or even a cure looks possible for the future.

        Anything I have received has had to be fought for. I missed two years of school, and in the year of my SATs I was given a home tutor. She was a good RE teacher, but her mathematical skills were virtually none existent. There were occasions where she refused to teach me because I have a cold or stomach bug that she didn’t want to catch because she was going away at the weekend. I feel that she let me (and probably some of her other students) down. After all, it is a bit daft tutoring ill children who have weak immune systems (and so catch things all the time) when you wont go near someone with a cold.