A stab in the dark

[BabblingBrooks]

What triggered your condition ?

I’ve just finished my second course of antibiotics following a sinus/ ear infection and feel a bit washed out.

I’ve started getting headaches and lately insomnia ( which I do get from time to time ) .

I suffer from menopause brain fog anyway but it’s definitely been worse this last week or so.

I don’t know if this is something that will last a couple of weeks or so or something more long term.

Any advice is appreciated.

[Iesgobdafydd]

I'm here because my daughter has CFS; her chronic fatigue was very clearly triggered by a virus, the doctor kept saying she had post-viral fatigue and she'd get over it but she never got over it. While that was the obvious trigger, there may well have been other factors. She was in her final year of school before university, so there was quite a bit of academic pressure; it was only her second year in school, she'd been home educated before that, so there was a lot to get used to, but she'd adjusted pretty well as far as I could tell. I'd been concerned before she even started at the school that she was getting sick more often than normal for unknown reasons, and it might make it difficult, but the head of the school said we should just give it a try and see how it went. It didn't seem anything serious, just ordinary colds and the like. With hindsight, I regret encouraging her to return to school as soon as possible after her previous bout of a different virus, not being at 100% health may have made her more vulnerable to the one that resulted in the CFS. She also had suffered from insomnia for years by the time she developed CFS, it could take her several hours to get to sleep at night.

[strongmouse]

Hello, my ME developed after I had a flu like infection. I kept getting an infection every couple of months recovered enough to go back to work and then became very ill with ME. I couldn't lift my arms up above my head, couldn't read watch television, or hold a conversation for more than a few minutes. I ached all over and felt exhausted. That was 30 years ago and it has followed a relapsing / remitting pattern since then. I am had to take ill health retirement from work, and I am on disability benefits.

The ME Association has information on diagnosis - meassociation.org.uk/me-cfs...

Any infection can leave you feeling washed out for a while afterwards. It is hard to know at first what is going on. The best advice is not to try to do to much until you are feeling better. I hope your ear / sinus infection has cleared up. Do go back to the doctor if it hasn't.

The menopause can cause some of the symtoms you mention and it is worth finding out more about that and how to manage it too.

[BabblingBrooks in reply to strongmouse]

Thanks for that, feeling a lot better than previously.

Seems to be one infection after another doing the rounds at the minute.

[strongmouse in reply to BabblingBrooks]

Yes there is a lot going around!