Hello

Hello and welcome to my new blog :)

My name is Catherine and I was diagnosed with Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome in April 2014 - so I'm a relative newcomer to it and already bored with it - following a period of illness with pneumonia and pleurisy and then pyrexia of unknown origin.

I can't imagine what it must feel like to have it for an extended period of time, especially if it's severe. Luckily I have a mild form of it and so manage to hold down a full time job, but doing so does mess with any kind of social life I had and also a side business I used to run.

I'm tired (pardon the pun) and embarrassed of giving the excuse of being tired to my friends and family for not going out or meeting up. It feels like such a lame reason; surely it's not difficult to just have a lie in the next day and catch up? If you suffer from this or are close with someone who does, then you know it doesn't work like that, but trying to explain it isn't easy and it's often easier to go with the excuse of not feeling well.

I won't go into much detail in this first post about how it all started with me etc. I want this blog to be a number of things - a source of information (mostly by the way of links to medical websites as I don't claim to be anything close to an expert), a bit of a foray into the ups and downs of living with this and the different things I try to improve my symptoms and a place for fellow sufferers and their families to realise they're not alone. Everyone is free to comment with their own experiences :)

I look forward to being there with you and hearing from you

Catherine