Day 3

Today’s blog will be shorter as I have my first appointment with a new CFS specialist I found. I’ve been through a number of doctors in the past, and most of them have not been very understanding when it comes to my condition. I’m sure many of you can relate to that. It’s too tiring to keep looking for new doctors and go through the whole history with them. That’s the reason I stay with my current primary care physician. He literally threw his hands up in the air and said, “if your MRI (on my brain) comes back normal, I don’t know what is wrong with you.” So I went back to him with I list of tests I found on the CFIDS site done to rule out others illnesses. I went to the only neurologist in town for the MRI results and interpretation. She said I don’t have MS lesions, but I have “spots on my brain.” I asked what she means by that and she could not explain. Later on after doing more reading about CFS, finding spots on the brains of people with CFS is very common. Brain damage perhaps from the illness itself? After doing the rest of her neurological exam, she looks at me and says, you have chronic fatigue syndrome. She wrote it on her business card and handed it to me. My doctors gave me no information about the illness. I’m very lucky to have access to the internet and decent skills at researching.

I am still hopeful about today’s appointment. The Dr. Teitlebaum I mentioned in an earlier blog, actually had CFS himself when he was younger, and had to drop out of medical school temporarily. He recovered, went back to medical school, and dedicates his profession to treating people with CFS. He has treatment centers throughout the US. The closest one for me is Las Vegas…a little too far. Dr.Powell, whom I am seeing today, was trained on his SHINE protocol. Shine stands for Supplements, Hormones, Infections, Nutrition, and Exercise. Dr. Powell has added an “S” to the end of it for Stress Management.

I hope to tell you more about how it went tomorrow. Please send positive thoughts my way.

Until tomorrow…
Linda