Sophie was a lively little girl... now she’s so weak she can’t even text
Robbed of life: Heartbreaking victims of ME and fibromyalgia
March 29th, 2012 at 02:02
LITTLE is known about ME –
and even doctors have been accused of failing to take it seriously.
...
Sophie, 17
...
The slightest thing exhausts Sophie and
because it's neurological, it affects every part of her body.
She can't watch TV or use a laptop because she's light intolerant.
It makes her dizzy or ill.
She can't read more than a couple of times a day and
she hasn't been downstairs for more than a year.
We can't speak to her for more than a few minutes at a time
because it drains her energy.
Her room has to be dark and
she needs help getting to the loo as she's too wobbly on her feet.
She can read texts but can't type herself
because her brain can't co-ordinate her fingers.
Eating and chewing is now almost impossible for her,
so she has a tube which feeds liquidised food through her nose, but she can drink herself.
...
This makes Sophie feel terribly guilty too – ME impacts hugely on everyone.
But throughout Sophie's been bright and cheerful,
always with a smile on her face.
...
Jamie, 23
JAMIE STRONG, from Kingston upon Thames,
is determined to end the stigma surrounding ME. He says:
...
To live this life with no end in sight feels like a living death.
If only people would realise this is a real, devastating physical illness,
then those with ME wouldn't feel so abandoned, dismissed and belittled.
We need the Government to treat this as the serious illness it is,
to educate doctors and to instigate more research so that proper treatments –
possibly a cure – can be found.
...
Linda, 52
OCCUPATIONAL therapist Linda Horncastle was crippled by pain
caused by fibromyalgia for nearly two decades.
She even contemplated suicide
to spare her family the burden of looking after her.
...
She explained how she had got her life back and even started work again
with stretching exercises combined with cutting out sugar, caffeine and gluten from her diet.
...
My symptoms improved by around 40 per cent,
but I was still far from well again.
A doctor suggested I try a device called an Alpha-Stim.
...
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/health/health/4226095/Robbed-of-life-Heartbreaking-victims-of-ME-and-fibromyalgia.html
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