Today was the first appointment.
It was only a telephone appointment, but the doctor asked me a lot of questions.
I already know that ME/CFS is not something that can be “specifically” diagnosed but is a diagnosis of elimination. She did ask me what I thought I had. I am not surprised she did this but I kind of wish she hadn’t. I always think that this kind of question is designed to see if someone is just looking things up to say they have. I hope I managed to convince her that wasn’t the case. I said that I was not a medical professional so my thoughts are just that… thoughts. I said that I believed I had most if not all the symptoms of CFS but that I was aware that all these symptoms can relate to other conditions and I just wanted to know what it was that was wrong with me, and what can be done to help me manage it.
After asking questions and listening to me, the doctor did say that the symptoms point toward CFS but of course as I already knew, there is no test for this and its a diagnosis of elimination.
Had just had bloods taken for my first diabetes recall of the year so she wanted to see what those results were and me to make another appointment in 3-4 weeks to see where we go next.
It does appear (not surprisingly) that the first thing they are going to look at is OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea). It makes sense as that can cause most of these symptoms. The one thing that is not explained by that however is the feeling just “tired” throughout the whole day but then suddenly within seconds feeling TOTALLY drained. Sometimes to the point where I have to concentrate not to slur my speech.
OSA would be a double edged sword. If that is the cause of my issues then “fixing” that would mean I would end up feeling better which would be a massive improvement in my life and I could “get on with things”. However the downside is the normal (and best) treatment for OSA is CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) which is basically a machine that forces air in and out and “makes you” breath.
