Another CFS Story

Early this morning, I heard another classic CFS story that should make us all furious.

 

A friend of a friend is hospitalized after collapsing at work.  She hasn't felt well for months, but the family insists that she's just too lazy to continue working three jobs.  When the doctors said they hadn't yet found a cause for the collapse, the family tried to insist that she walk out of the hospital and get back to work, because there's obviously nothing wrong with her.  Fortunately, she's too exhausted to walk, or someone would have dragged her out of the hospital against doctor's orders.

 

The primary reason CFS patients are admitted to the hospital is "inability to care for self".  Like this woman, their body gives them warning signals for months and they don't slow down until they reach a point of complete collapse.  For some of us Type A's, the motivation is internal, for others it's family members or employers pushing them to do more until their body gives out.

 

The good news is, now that she's been admitted to the hospital, it's more likely that she'll be able to get SSDI benefits quickly.  The bad news is, I know people who pushed to the point of collapse, wound up in the hospital, got their benefits right off, but the after-effect of having pushed themselves to the point of hospitalization has lasted more than a year of even worse health.  For those of us who are just barely managing in the first place, pushing to the point of hospitalization might mean the last night we ever spend in our own home.  I don't want to live in a nursing home for a couple of decades, but pushing myself to get hospitalized to get my benefits more than likely would have that result; getting my SSDI benefits simply isn't worth the trade-off of being permanently unable to do even the small amount I'm able to do now.

 

Fortunately, this woman has a friend-of-a-friend who knows a lot about CFS.  I recommended my friend print out the lists of tests recommended for CFS (referenced elsewhere in this blog) and see if they can get the doctors to do at least some of them.  Perhaps the abnormal test results will convince her family that she's really sick, not lazy, so that they stop pushing her to continue pushing to the limit until they kill her.