Long Term Glandular Fever

Being Well

   What is like to feel better? What is it like to feel well?

  You might take your well being for granted - (I can't explain to you how silly this is!). However I can tell you what it's like for me when I am feeling well. (It doesn't happen often I assure you - perhaps when there's a leap year!)

   My illness takes the form of a cycle of symptoms which takes between 4-6 weeks to turn, depending on how much I have rested and looked after my health during this time. With the different stages comes a differing set of problems to deal with. However, there is a point in the cycle (a point which I seldom reach - skipping over it as I do whenever I take from my health supplies), a point where I am getting better.

   I assume that if I were not locked into this viral (or immune created) cycle this would be the point where I would be regaining my strength in preparation for a full recovery. Naturally the point of full recovery never comes but the preparation point sometimes does emerge. It's something that you might not be aware of, especially if you have not been through it as many times as I have.

   It is a point where there is energy to spare in your body. I can almost feel it there as a bubbling cauldron of power just above my stomach where my ribs divide. Suddenly I will wake up of a morning with the feeling that if I tried to do something I would actually be able to perform the task without paying the price! Imagine it: you tell me that we're off to Disneyland, and instead of my mental excitement being cut short, the power is there, the mental commands can fly to the muscles without an age of negotiating or bulldozering. If I want to jump up and down I can!

   This 'fire' not only funds any exertion I might want to ask of my body, it also does something even more amazing, it actually makes me want to be active. Now, you might be tempted to think that someone who doesn't want to be active is apathetic or lazy. In fact quite the reverse is true for most CFS/ME sufferers: if you've tried again and again and again to exercise and every time you end up hurting yourself (with 4 weeks recovery time) you quickly learn not to put yourself through it needlessly. Resources are precious when you have CFS.

A page from James David Chapman's website. Located at: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jchap/ Site mirrored here at: http://www.j.chap.btinternet.co.uk
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