006 PART 1 of Chapter 4 "Patient and Family Responsibilities"

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November 1, 2009
006

Continuing with some words from "Chronic Fatigue Unmasked 2000" by Dr. Gerald Poesnecker, I have to say this is one good chapter! It's called "Patient and Family Responsibilities" and has already helped my husband, Roger, and I to see what we both are supposed to be doing during healing of this illness. I sure thank God for him! It's a rough road, but he is staying the course with me. One of my good friends agreed to read this chapter when she gets time. That's one of the most comforting things - to know I have a friend who will support me by doing her best to understand how best to do so. You know who you are if you are reading this - know I love you and thank God for you! Quotes from the book are in brown. My notes are in black:

"The patient with this problem is usually intelligent, highly motivated, responsible, with a great desire to achieve. The difficulty is that he has neither the glandular nor the nervous strength to carry out these deisres and ambitions... Put yourself in his place for a moment, and perhaps you will see the degree of frustration that is produced by his condition. You are an individual of intelligence and character. You have desired to do useful and productive things with your life, and yet every time you attempt to do something, you become more and more exhausted. Every attempt at productive activity is met with strange nervous anxieties or, as one patient put it, "agitated depression." The only thing that even remotely seems to help is rest and withdrawal from all the fascintating events of life. You are like an athlete who is trained to run the hundred-yard dash, but who collapses after a few yards each time he attempts to run. Soon you stop trying and wonder if there is any sense in training or in trying to accomplish anything because fatigue, anxiety and failure have become the essence of your existence. Here, of course, is where your friend and family come to your aid. They entreat you: "Now, come on, don't be lazy. Keep going, keep trying," they tell you. "It's all in your mind. Tell yourself you are going to succeed and you will." The more of such admonitions and encouragement you receive from your family and friends, the more guilt you accumulate when you are not able to accomplish what they extol you to do." (pg 77)

If you are reading this and do not have Adrenal Syndrome (CFS), please, never take your health for granted. Use it for the glory of God... it is a gift I wish I had.

"Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) requires more patient cooperation and responsibility in its mastering and cure than any other medical condition known to me... The physician, no matter how accomplished, cannot cure CFS by himself. All honest treatment of CFS requires a great deal of work and dedication on the part of the physician, the patient, and especially those around the patient, both friends and family." (pg 65)

"It is not always easy for the CFS patient to comprehend his condition as readily as a more stable person might, because by nature CFS causes mental clouding, poor concentration, and inferier memory rentention." (pg 68)

"To understand the patient's difficulty, let us reconsider the nature of the condition, the nature of the CFS patient and the advice of the various physicians the patient may have consulted before us. In past years, most of these patients had been diagnosed as neurotic or just plain lazy. But they know that something is really wrong with them, and so most have fears that some strange, undiscoverd disease is gradually eating away at their vitals." (pg 69)

"Just yesterday, one of my CFS patients told me how she startled a surgeon, who had just told her she had breast cancer, by saying, "Boy, am I glad that's all it is, I was afraid it might be another manifestation fo CFS." "After all," as she asserted to me, "They do have a treatment for breast cancer." (pg 69)

One word about the last two statements above: EXACTLY!

"I once had a young minister from Pittsburgh as a CFS patient. His condition had become so severe that he had fainted in the pulpit while delivering a sermon. This reaction, not all that uncommon in CFS patients, occurred because his low blood pressure delivered a deficient amount of oxygen to his brain." (pg 71)

The story goes on about this pastor, but I want to stop at this point and note that in all the years I've seen doctors (which has not been in the past few years because they just want to send me to psychiatrists and not treat the real problem), they always said that my low blood pressure is fine, nothing to worry about. Why then have I always been faint? Why have I fainted? Why is this okay? It's not. It's dangerous and yet the medical community thinks, "Oh, well it's not high blood pressure, so you are better off." They ought to read their own material. Here is what the Mayo Clinic says in part:

for many people, low blood pressure can cause symptoms of dizziness and
fainting or mean that they have serious heart, endocrine or neurological
disorders. Severely low blood pressure can deprive the brain and other vital
organs of oxygen and nutrients, leading to a life-threatening condition called
shock.

The first time I fainted was when I was 11 and it was even in a hospital. You would think from 11 on, someone in the medical field would test my endocrine system or heart. Now I have a competent doctor and he and I are working on getting my blood pressure up so that I can get oxygen to my brain. I know these posts are long, so I'll stop here and move onto the rest of this pastor's story in tomorrow's post and finish up the rest of the portions of Chapter 4 too.

My other blogs can be found HERE and HERE.

The original post for this daily diary began HERE.

Coram Deo,
Tamara Slack