The Virtual Sofa

The Virtual Sofa

A place where fellow sufferers of long term glandular fever, CFS, ME, or PVS can come and take a short rest.

Tell me how you feel today. Go on, get it off your chest...

Results so far...

Getting by:

Crappie:

Really ill:

Dead:

CFS TIP: Talk to other sufferers

First, some advantages to having CFS...

  Being able to sit around watching TV all day would seem to be a great advantage. You can slob around eating lots of stuff, not having to go to work or take exams and not being bothered by doctors that much. Sounds just great!

  It also gives you great understanding the elderly and makes sure that all your friends are good ones! Sounds perfect! Why complain?

Well.... what are the disadvantages then?

  Having to sit around watching TV all day. At worst getting eating disorders, at best, getting fat. Having to go to work and then breaking down. Doctors don't believe a word you say.

  Combine those with feeling alone and waking up at all hours with muscles hurting and a dizzy head and you're starting to sound ill.

"That's quite enough negativity..."

CFS TIP: Do stuff. Then pay the price. At Least you'll have have done something this year.
Justify it by the fact that your immune health depends on your mental health too!

The Internet - you're amongst friends...

You've already done the best thing... getting on the internet. Just look at these benefits...

It still rots your brain, but at half the pace of television! Great!

It gets you in touch, with 1,000s of other people who are too tired to email you!

It shows you that you are not special, you are in fact common as muck, thus taking away the only solace you may have had about your illness in the first place!

It gives you a place to come to moan! - If you can get a word in that is!

CFS TIP: Strike balances. (Its not as easy as it sounds).

Tell people you are ill, but don't tell them all the time.

Don't exercise, but make sure you don't turn into a slob.

Sleep, but don't sleep your life away.

Some silly things to do, when you have CFS....

    Stand, when there is a chair available.

    Run

    Do anything but rest, if you have another virus on top of what you got.

    Expect more than 5 minutes sympathy from anyone.

    Take a subway journey... 1,000,000 viruses per cubic cm

    Try to hold down a part time job.

CFS TIP: Get a sympathetic doctor, not an old fashioned one.

Some Very silly things to do, when you have CFS...

    Go rock climbing.

    Attempt a cross-channel swim.

    Apply to be an astronaut.

    Get a book on Quantum Physics from the library.

    Try to set a world record,

        for anything other than, sleeping, or watching TV.

    Try to hold down a full time job.

CFS TIP: Keep a stable relationship.

It's not easy. Not easy, considering that you are laid up all day in bed or TV/SOFA land. However, people with CFS deserve a shot at happiness too, so try it. Tell the truth about your illness. When you feel you can try it, make an effort to do something. Even a simple gesture will help. Yeah, of course it is going to make you ill, but it is worth it - big time.

Maybe you could enter your favourite CFS pastime to the list...

Watching paint dry.

Justifiying being ill to people.

Jigsaws [ARRRRRG! rating=*****].

Sleeping.

Making lists of all the things I'd like to do...

Spitting - 'cos it hurts too much to swallow!...

Wishing I didn't have CFS...

Counting how many times your heart beats a day...

Analysing symptoms...

Virtual jigsaws...

moaning!!...

CFS TIP: Low battery warning.

Hey, if you haven't already worked it out, you have this, [----] much energy per day and ANYTHING you might want to do, comes out of it. It's not a lot is it? Well, you do not have the energy to go wasting on exercise. You gotta make sure you don't seize up but you can't go jogging: you've got try to keep that heart healthy but you can't afford to waste your power.

CFS FOODS: Take a quick nibble of your favourite snack available from a fridge near you. (As near possible) and tell me what it is:

Snackies such as:

Sandwiches,

Toasties,

Pop tarts

An apple

Fruit ice lollies

I drink custard! (it hurts to swallow) ;-)

Ice cream - sooths the throat

..are all great for the CFS sufferer, who is too ill to get up off the sofa for more than a minute, but not the most healthy option! But you don't need me to tell you that...

So what's your favourite? (Heathly/or not so healthy snackie).

CFS TIP: Try to make up for the things you have lost. Find new hobbies, new people, new work. If they're too tiring - you're not looking for new things - you're trying to do what you used to do, before you're ready.

  Hey, you are not alone. There are many other people out there, who know what you are going through. They know how much CFS stinks, and how it can eat up your life like a cancer. All I can say is, take a rest here on the virtual sofa, then shout at the top of your voice, "Would somebody pleeeeease find a cure?", "We're too exhausted to find our own!". Then come back for another rest, before you attempt anything else.

Take care!

James/.

On Tuesday, August 7, 2001 nick wrote:

Comments: Dude you need to get a bigger sofa!

[Go back to my Glandular Fever/CFS/ME pages].

  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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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
This page last updated: My rating for the page: