As many of you know i'm doing my Final Dissertation at the moment, so i asked Neil to give me his story to share with you all. Just so that people understand that not every story is the same. So over to Neil.
'Why ME'
Elle has asked me if I
would like to contribute an article to her blog.
I'm Neil , I was diagnosed with ME in
Oct 1995 , for 1st 4 years suffered badly , but from 1999
saw slow improvement , to be able to
return to work part time in December 2001 , working 3 days
but never 2 consecutive days , with
several minor relapses I continued to work until January 2009
when I hit the wall , I pushed myself
over the limit , being over confident , another tale.
After the 2nd relapse ,
after a period of time , I got low , bored , isolated and financial
concerns ,
I saw my doctor , for a chat and
asked him 'WHY ME ' and he replied because you can cope with
it Neil , reminding my positivity in
the 1st place got me to where I was in December 2001.
Prior to my illness I was quiet an
active person , in 1994 retired from refereeing 80 games/season
was runnung a junior football side
and cycling 12 miles a night 3 times a week , I also had a
responsible job in the Food Industry
and married for 2nd time.
Then in May 1995 had serious bout of
Food Poisoning , and I just went down hill after that , best
way to describe how I felt was like
a car battery that doesn't charge up properly , expend energy
and took ages to get going again and
the pain in my calf muscles was worse than toothache.
Fortunatley through work had free
health medical cover , so after extensive tests , I phoned specialist
in October and said what is wrong , never forget he said you've got
M.E. Over the phone.
Well we all know what it is now , I
joined Shropshire M.E. Group , was North Shropshire contact.
You name it , I read about it , etc
another tale to tell.
Like so many people I carried on as
if it would disappear , pushing myself , oh dear that was the
wrong thing to do , I ended up a
total physical wreck , walking 10 metres left me total exhausted,
the pains and aches intensified , got
the M.E. Jerk , and not headaches but at back of head on
right hand side , it felt sore of you
know what I mean.
SO TO ALL NEW SUFFERS - STOP –
YOU CAN'T DO WHAT YOU DID BEFORE
I wasn't going to let this illness
get on top of me , my doctor was always impressed by my positivity ,
I had read so many articles about people who had given up and spent
all day in bed ,
read about a hockey player who had ME
and thought they were better played a match and ended
up being worse, so knew possible
pitfalls.
My wife at the time worked as a care
for a young man with MS and that made me realise I may
have M.E. but it I could be so much
worse off.
So thats when I started using the
expressions ' Thats Life and ' There's a lot worse of than ME '
So after 3 years , after discussion
with doctor , who was a great support , we decided it best if I
stopped and basically rested for
nearly a year and then rebuild myself up , doing a little bit more
once a week , montoring situation
all the time. Took 2 years but it was worth it.
It's so important during this time
you keep yourself sane and positive , I set quizes for local pub .
Analysed the Top 40 singles ,i'm
music nut .
SO BE POSITVE ,KEEP YOU MIND ACTIVE
AND THERE IS LIGHT AT END OF TUNNEL
( to be continued )
And Ladies and Gents, that is Neil... He was awesome the other day, i was having a down day after my Courage post went live, so he sent me this link and i listen to it every day now...
No copy right infringement mean't just an illustration how how awesome Neil is.. LOL
