This CFS section to the site has been a long time coming. I actually created it about a year ago but never did anything with it. I just had an “idea” to do this to collect my thoughts and information I have found along my journey.
To be honest I can’t remember if I started noticing symptoms of fatigue before or after I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes (see https://tim.tim.gildersleeve.uk/diabetes/ ). A number of the symptoms can also be caused by uncontrolled diabetes so I put them down to that initially. I was “spectacularly” fatigued near the end of 2018. I tried a few things like eating more fruit – drinking fruit juice and a number of other things but this did not help at all. As it turns out this was exactly the WRONG thing to do due to the fact that in December 2018 I was finally diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and all that fruit was just adding loads of sugar!
Once I had that diagnosis, I hoped that the fatigue would go away. It didn’t. My research led me to believe that this COULD be related to the diabetes medication I was on. I decided at the very least I should give the medications time for my body to get used to them before seeking more advice. This was complicated by several changes in mediation, leading to me needing to start that process again.
Eventually I decided that the medications were not the cause – or if they were then they didn’t need to “settle down” so needed to find out more. I made an appointment with my GP in Jan 2020 and he ordered some blood tests. I don’t know if this was good or bad but the blood tests didn’t show anything. I didn’t hear back from my doctor after that but assumed it was for me to contact again.
However, around this time COVID was becoming evident. I had some indication that this COULD be something along the lines of ME/CFS and knew that diagnosis for this was a “long haul”. I just didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole while COVID was getting worse and worse. With my existing diabetes I have to admit I was rather terrified of getting COVID and the idea of potentially visiting a doctor many times – or even the possibility of a hospital made me decide not to pursue this anymore at that time.
Fast forward to 2022 and COVID is still here but it has got “less”. I am also double jabbed and boosted (although I still don’t know how long that will be effective or what will be offered going forward). Additionally I have been working from home for the last 2 years at this point and with the support of my line manager, many things that work while at home…. may not work so well if I have to go back to the office. In fact, I have become worried that if I have to go back to the office regularly – I wont be able to continue working!
With all this in mind, I have decided now is the time to jump down that rabbit hole……
