by Jody Smith Chronic illness and the Poverty Diet often go together. Far too often. I was on the Poverty Diet for many years. I have ME/CFS, my husband Alan deals with crippling past injuries and fibromyalgia. We raised our children on the Poverty Diet during more than half their childhoods. It is a no-brainer (pardon the ME/CFS pun) that
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by Jody Smith For most years in the last two decades, summer has been my best season. My serious crashes always took place between September and April. And every year, beginning in May, I would begin my slow climb back toward something resembling health. Laying outside in the sun for 20 minutes or so in the mornings seemed to make
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by Jody Smith As is so often the case, the research on a possible correlation between metabolic syndrome and ME/CFS is scanty. When I came across this threadbare research, though, I was desperate enough to check it out for myself. I recognized myself when I read about the weight gain and difficulties in dropping the weight, but what really rang
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by Jody Smith I’ll always remember my 25th wedding anniversary as being something special. I wish I could say that this was because my husband and I celebrated in some marvelous fashion, but that wasn’t it. At the age of 49, I thought I was having a stroke. I got up that morning feeling fine — or no worse than
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by Jody Smith The struggle with energy (or lack of it) is an integral part of life with ME/CFS. Whatever other symptoms each of us deals with, the ongoing energy black hole and knowing when and how to use what little oomph we might have safely, is a conundrum we all grapple with, often without success. During the times when
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Jody Smith continues her review of Nova’s Patient Conference for Dr Klimas with a look at three patients who have improved significantly. “No one has ever taught me more about what to do than my patients.” So said Dr. Nancy Klimas at the Patient Conference hosted by Nova Southeastern University on January 26, 2013. This has to be one of
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by Jody Smith Post-exertional malaise. The first few times I heard this term I could not grasp what it meant. Chalk that up to a CFS-crippled brain. The first few dozen times I tried to say it, my cognitive fog prevented me from being able to do so. Many years later it rolls off the tongue, though not in a
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by Jody Smith Thanks to the misleading name Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the misunderstandings concerning sleep are numerous and contradictory. Those who are unfamiliar with ME/CFS often may conclude that we are sleepy all the time. It doesn’t really work that way. Some of us can’t sleep at all. Others sleep for long periods but never when they’d like to. Many
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by Jody Smith Llewellyn King has been gaining quite a reputation for himself in ME/CFS circles of late. He has been a journalist, foreign correspondent, editor, creator of his own publishing group, and public speaker over his long career. And now King is an advocate for people with ME/CFS. He writes about us often on his White House Chronicle blog.
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by Jody Smith Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine is hosting a Patient Conference for Dr. Nancy Klimas on January 26, 2013. Klimas is considered to be an expert in immune disorders and one of the world’s best researchers and clinicians for ME/CFS. The theme of the conference is CFS/ME and Gulf War Illness 2013 – A Celebration of Hope
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by Jody Smith Christmas can prompt intense mixed feelings for those of us with ME/CFS. Those of us who were not stricken in our youth may have some wonderful memories of the holiday season. This can prompt anticipation and longing, accompanied by dread. Anticipation may be triggered as an automatic desire for a repeat performance of those early experiences. Longing
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by Jody Smith We’ve all known people we’d prefer to avoid. People who make us want to run the other way when we see them coming, because they do nothing but complain. It galls me no end that there are people who react this way to me if I talk about what life with ME/CFS has done to me. Llewellyn
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