I can tell you a bit about living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. You see, I've had CFS for over 27 years now. It was nine years before I had a diagnosis for CFS, and at that time it was still called CEBV. Those first nine years I had to learn about CFS by myself. There was no one to compare notes with, no books on the subject and no doctors who would have read about it. Sometimes self-learning reveals things that would be overlooked otherwise- It also forces you to come up with a string of phrases to describe how you feel to others

CFS causes a kind fatigue unlike any other fatigue. Typically if I mention I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome the first response is, "oh I know what you mean! I'm always tired too!" Well excuse me, but I can pretty much safely say that you don't have a clue about the kind of fatigue I experience.

Fatigue is such an ambiguous term, and likely one of the political reasons the disease was named as such because there is much more to CFS than tiredness. The English language doesn't possess quite the nuance of terms to adequately describe this type of fatigue. But I will try to string a bunch of words together to give you a bit more accurate picture.

Imagine yourself during the worst case of flu you ever had. Remember the weariness, heaviness, and weakness you felt? Remember trying to get up to go to the bathroom and finding your legs wobbly and your brain spinning and wondering if you had the strength to make it that far, let alone back again? It was all encompassing and didn't seem to matter that you had already done nothing but lay in that bed for the last two days already. The house could be burning down and someone would have had to come drag you up and out the door. Now add to that another layer of skin made out of cement making you feel a bit heavier than normal. You are exhausted!

There you are, flat in bed, weak, weary, heavy, sick, aching all over. Your throat might be sore, you glands swollen. You feel woozy and dizzy-ish. At the moment your stomach is not your best friend. You have vague discomfort head to toe. You brain isn't exactly functioning normally so those words on the page of that book you wish you could read not only won't quite come into focus but you can't remember exactly what they mean. You sure wouldn't want to help your son with his 5th grade math problem at the moment. You also wouldn't wish to be tested on your daughter's history reading assignment, as you can't remember

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