Gregg Charles Fisher - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Tragically, the tormenting exhaustion and painful debilitation of chronic fatigue syndrome does not stop with the sufferer. A disease that not only invades but envelops, CFS has paralyzing symptoms that can affect the entire family, stretching the family financesand the bonds of loveto the breaking point.

Yet, the lives and relationships of CFS sufferers can be healed even as they wait for a cure to be found for this insidious disease.

Drawn from the challenges and triumphs posed by Gregg Fishers own seven-year struggle with CFS, and culled from the findings of the most respected medical authorities in the field, this timely and compassionate guide empowers CFS sufferers and those who love them to:

• Strengthen support systems while allowing the patient to heal
• Maintain financial security and well-being no matter how prolonged the illness
• Seek out the treatments that can bolster the immune system without depleting morale
• Move beyond the grief, guilt, and anger that isolate CFS victims in their pain
• And, most of all, live each day as fully as they possibly can.

Inspiring down-to-earth, practical, and informative. Now theres help for all who suffer from this devastatingand elusiveillness.

MICHAEL KRAUSS, creator and executive producer, and JOAN LUNDEN, host of Mothers Day

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by Gregg Fisher is an intelligent account of his personal struggle and a good source of information on CFS.

CFS Support Group Newsletter, Seattle, Washington

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is excellentand Gregg Fishers courage and strength are commendable.

Wendy Cassel, R.N., California Support Group Leader

All CFS patients should read this book. It is very beneficial and means so much to CFS patients.

Judy Basso, President, Minnesota CEBV Association

Gregg Charles Fisher earned a degree in biology with a minor in chemistry from The Kings College, New York, and took graduate courses in physiology and biochemistry at Rutgers University. He was attending Trinity Evangelical Divinity School when both he and his wife became ill with chronic fatigue syndrome.

This book was previously published under the title Waiting To Live.

The information presented in this book is designed to help you better understand and cope with chronic fatigue syndrome. While this book can be a valuable addition to your doctors advice, it is intended for your use under his or her care and direction. The author and publisher disclaim any responsibility for any adverse effects resulting from the information contained herein.

Revised and updated edition Copyright 1989 by Gregg Charles Fisher

Copyright 1987 by MONTCO

All rights reserved.

Warner Books, Inc.,

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10017

Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

First eBook Edition: October 2009

ISBN: 978-0-446-56749-7

This book is lovingly dedicated

to my precious Shawn,

the woman who is

my wife and my life,

and

to

Mary, Bernard, Caren, and Eric,

my dearly loved family:

no one embodies the true measure

of love more than you.

Contents

M odern medicine has given us an air of invulnerability. Day after day, the media bring us news of the latest wonder drug or miracle cure. The post-World War II generation has never known the summer scourges of polio nor the mass quarantines of tuberculosis. Our concerns are the ills of advancing age: cancer, stroke, heart attacks.

Small wonder that the chronically ill are studiously ignored by the chronically well, particularly those in the prime of life. The social isolation can add an intolerable burden to an already limited life-style. Fortunately, the recent political mobilization of the physically challenged has resulted in greater accessibility to transportation and public facilities. Still, the United States is one of the few industrialized nations without a national health plan, so health costs that extend for decades keep most of the chronically ill well below the federal poverty level. The social services that might lighten the burden are all too often inaccessible to those most in need. The very effort to maintain life and limb often precludes the nourishment of heart and soul. New relationships are forestalled and existing ones are strained, often to the breaking point.

The author of this book has been faced with this type of crisis. Taken ill while still in graduate school, trying to maintain and nurture a relationship with his future wife, he was faced with uncertain prospects of health, career, finances, and family. Many of us who have faced similar situations have had no guidance on how to proceed with our lives, or how to view our cloudy futures. This book is the very personal story of one mans journey into night. Its a saga of bewilderment, faith, despair, and hope. As with all stories of chronic illness, its a work still in progress, but it has some wonderful lessons to teach and may serve as a wellspring of inspiration for all.

Specifically for those afflicted with this ailment, known variously as chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic Epstein-Barr virus, neuromyasthenia, myalgic encephalomyelitis, post-viral fatigue syndrome, or chronic mononucleosis, this book contains a wealth of information, in terms which are made clear to the layperson. The medical contributions are by Drs. James M. Oleske, Paul R. Cheney, Stephen E. Straus and Janet Dale, R.N., nationally recognized researchers and highly respected members of their profession.

As a fellow sufferer of this illness, and one who has spoken to hundreds of others, I endorse this book wholeheartedly, and with great affection.

ROBERT LANDAU

Support Group Leader

New Jersey CFS Association

When peace, like a river,

Attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea-billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast

Taught me to say,

It is well, it is well

With my soul.

E ver since I first became ill I have recorded my experiences and reflections with the hope of someday putting them together in a book. If I had known from the outset how much effort this would cost me, I dont know if I would have attempted it. But, thanks to the help of so many others, it is done now, and Im glad I began it.

In addition to the usual problems faced by any sufferer of a chronic illness, there is an added burden associated with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS): it is a relatively unknown, typically unappreciated, and poorly understood disease. Although tens of thousands of people are estimated to be suffering from CFS in this country alone, and though CFS has lately been the subject of articles in medical journals, newspapers, and magazines, there is very little practical information available to help sufferers understand and cope with this terribly traumatic affliction.

My goal, then, is to supply this crucial information. But this book is not merely a compendium of impersonal information about CFS. For knowing about an illness without understanding how that illness affects the outer and inner lives of the afflicted is like knowing the statistics on hunger without understanding that people are dying of starvation. In this book I present information about CFS from my perspective as a sufferer and as the husband of a CFS sufferer as well. By showing how CFS has affected me and my family and how we have coped with it, I hope to demystify CFS for you and to suggest ways of easing the pain and frustration of living with this syndrome.