Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – Tina’s Story

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My story starts 10 years before I was ever told I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Epstein-Barr virus or Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I was 23 years old and in University. I had transferred schools after nearly completing a French Degree and decided to switch majors. I began to notice that year that I would panic about things. I didn’t have panic attacks; I just couldn’t handle stress very well anymore, normal stress. I was moody and irritable. I also noticed that I was very sad for no apparent reason. I would be sitting in lecture hall and I would get this overwhelming need to cry. I would be standing in line at the store and again, I just wanted to cry. I then started to have trouble sleeping. A friend suggested I go to the doctor and see what was wrong.

I went to my doctor and she put me on Prozac. I remember looking at the prescription but I couldn’t read it. When I picked it up at the pharmacy I realized what she had given me. I had just read about Prozac in my Psychology text book. I remember thinking to myself “Am I going crazy?”, but I continued taking it and didn’t question it. The only symptom it helped was the crying. I no longer felt like crying but every other symptom was still there. I still just didn’t feel myself. I was on Prozac for 3 years and I gained 65 pounds when I decided to stop. It wasn’t helping and I kept gaining weight.

Over the past 13 years I have been on and off of antidepressants. It has been a roller coaster of emotions, side effects, and withdrawal effects. I have felt very alone and very lost. I kept searching and researching to find out what was wrong with me. Where can I go for help? I needed an answer because deep in my heart I knew that what the doctors were telling me was wrong. It just didn’t make sense. When I would explain to my family and friends what depression and anxiety was, deep down I knew that was not what was wrong with me.

In the beginning of 2002 I was struck by an incredible fatigue. I just woke up one day to the beginning of 3 of the most hellish years of my life. I was 33 now and working. I noticed that my energy level had dropped drastically. I would sleep all the time, but I never woke up rested. I began going to doctors and they found nothing. I got pregnant in May of that year and chalked up the need to keep sleeping to being pregnant. I practically slept through the whole pregnancy. I was sleeping 15 to 16 hours a day. I had my daughter in February 2003. My mom stayed for the first 3 months and when she left I thought I was going to die. I had a baby to take care of and I was so, so fatigued. I cried everyday and prayed for the strength to do what I had to do. It was so hard because I didn’t even have the energy to get out of bed. My husband helped, but he was gone 12 hours of the day. Those days when he wasn’t home were the longest.

I went to doctors again and they put me on more antidepressants. The drugs didn’t help me at all. I kept pushing them to run tests. They tested me for everything; Lupus, MS, Parkinson’s disease, Diabetes and anything else they need to weed out prior to diagnosing you with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I remember the day my doctor told me that I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and the Epstein-Barr virus. He simply said that we don’t understand CFS and that there is no treatment.

Finally, the day came for which I had been praying and praying. My mother had come back to help me, this time for 6 months, it was 2 weeks before she was scheduled to fly home. My best friend called me with information about a clinic in Houston, Texas that she had been reading about on her flight home from a business trip. The article talked about everything I had been going through. It was as if it was written about me. I decided to call and it was the turning point in my life. I finally was talking to someone who understood what I was going through. She didn’t make me feel stupid, she validated my deep feelings that there was something else wrong with me…it was my hormones. I was so excited that I booked my appointment and my husband and I flew to Houston to meet with Dr. Ellsworth on June 10, 2004 at the Hotze Health and Wellness Center. I cried when he told me I was going to get better. I never ever thought I would hear those words from a doctor.

I spent 4 hours at the clinic and they gave me a treatment regimen that has given me back my life. I am on Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy, consisting of Progesterone, Armour Thyroid, Cortisol and DHEA. I am on a vitamin supplement program and eating much better. I am also going to do a Yeast-free diet which will treat my Irritable Bowel Syndrome and restore my body with the natural healthy protective bacteria that years of taking antibiotics has killed.

I am feeling better than I have ever felt before. I am a completely different person. It has truly been a life-changing experience.

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