Ah, CFS, CFS, wherefor art thy CFS? for a rose by any other name...

I'm dog tired today. Big shocker. I've been tired for seven years. Doesn't do much for my social or professional life, but sure does give me a lot of time to think. Was complaining to random people about my lack of a life when some do-gooder piped up - "hey, why don't you start a blog?". Now, this may have been a last ditch attempt to get me to stop talking but, you know what, I prefer to believe that he recognized the spark of brilliance in my random musings and wanted me to share my unique perspective with the world.

And that's how you lucky (or not) people got to be here, reading my blog!

So, why am I tired, you wonder. Fully explaining this would take more energy than I have, so I'll tell you in 3 simple words: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).

I often wish that this illness was called something else. Something that sounded more, well, more serious I guess. Something that conveyed what the illness was really all about. That let you know about the dizziness, the pains, the constantly aching muscles, the days when I'm too tired to lift a spoon or walk to the bathroom or even to think. You know, one of those sixteen syllable, impossible to to pronounce, incredibly medical sounding names ending with "itis" or "osis" or "phage". A name that caused an awed hush to go around the room when I said it (insert dreamy sigh here). But back to reality - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome it is. I guess I just gotta work with what I got.

But all is not lost. There are people out there who are trying to set the record straight about CFS. In fact, I'll have you know that William Reeves, hot-shot doctor with the Chronic Diseases Center actually said, and I kid you not, “I think there is no question that ...[people with CFS] are as impaired as a whole as people with MS [Multiple Sclerosis], as people with AIDS, as people undergoing chemotherapy for cancer”.

So, don't go knocking my disease just cause it doesn't have a cool name.