HELP ME! I am going crazy, do I have CFS or not?

Brain and nerves
1

First off, I am from the U.S. so sorry if I respond to replies at odd times due to the time differences!

This is a LONG story so please BARE with me smile

My names Will, I am a 17 year old teenage guy. I am (was) a tennis player with goals to play for universities and many coaches wanted me to play. I played 6 days a week with no problems. I am (was) a very hyper kid, always happy, and energized. This past year was junior year of school, the hardest year in high school. I stayed up around 1:30 AM every night studying and what not. Then in early April I got the Flu. The flu lasted around 1 week and i was ok. Then I smoked mairjuana (bad idea) and had a panic attack which severely ruined my mindset for weeks. I began to feel a little better and the panic attack symptoms went away. sorry this was a long time ago I do not remember it much. Then in late late April I got strep throat-very bad strep throat where I was bed-ridden for days. That lasted around 8 days. I took medicine and it fixed the strep throat but I felt soarness still0very mildly but I felt something wasnt right...then I attempted to play tennis again and fell to the ground. I had ZERO energy and hit me out of no where. Now its late May and I went to the doctor and i STILL HAD STREP THROAT! So i took more medicine which helped a little but I was still tired. Now its June and Im feeling 75% ok. Tired but not incredibly. Then, something terrible happened. I drank alcohol (quite a lot) and the next day I had an intense RELAPSE. Brain fog, headach,es dizziness, fatigue, no concentration, all together bad feelings. This lasted 4 weeks and then all the symtoms  but Fatigue and headaches went away. In july I was AGAIN tested for Strep and it was POSITIVE. What is going on?! I was treated and my soar throats went away but not the fatigue or crazy headaches. Now my doctoer wants to take my tonsils out next week in hopes of curing it all. Today I am exhausted beyond belief. I get 10-11 hours of sleeo and wake up EXHAUSTED. I am lying down almost all the time but if my parents force me to go out I can do so. I played tennis 4 weeks every day straight the past 4 weeks and I can do so but just feel tired the days after. I can exercise and all. I feel tired after but not flu like symptons as I read CFS can cause. But right now I am exhausted and have no wants in doing anything because it makes me more tired. I have bad headaches which are fixed a little by xanex (I take xanex because I may have anxiety from constantly sthinking I have CFS). I only feel a bit energized at nighttime. Something is definetly wrong. I can hardly deal with this crazy tiredness and headaches. Im worried I will not be able to go to college next year because I think I Have CFS. Please help mesad

2

Hi 

even if you have got CFS you are young and you will recover . The good thing is your gp is taking your symptoms seriously. You need to wait and see if having your tonsils removed solves your symptoms. It may do. 

If it doesn't taking a year out to totally rest is often all that's needed at your age to recover. I have know lots of people who got unexplained extreme fatigue CFS when they were 15,16,17 totally rested and after 6 months got energy back. When you are young you can take a year out and rest.your parents look after you . If you are 30 odd with kids responsibilities you keep pushing yourself for months and months bringing on long term damage taking longer to heal.

anxiety won't help but thoughts are not easy to control. You sound like anxiety plagues you and you are obsessing over CFS. If you end up with it you will have to deal with it and I bet you deal with stuff however bad ok when it happens But it's the fear of bad stuff you don't deal with. Try to just deal with what u have not what u might have. And if you do have it rest rest rest and recover ... It's not a death sentence smile 

3

Wow. You know me pretty well! Thank you so much. Should I be looking into gradula exercise instead of pushing myself with hours of a tennis a week? And should I change my diet? I have a great metabolism and in breat shape but eat HORRIBLE foods (cant resist!). And I will rest up. Thanks again

4

Whatever is wrong with you? Something is wrong. And it may not be CFS . But if you are feeling fatigued what is your body telling you? Listen to your body .its saying rest ... If you feel fatigued don't go mad exercising . If you feel good exercise but don't over do it keep checking how you feel . After half a n hour tennis how do u feel ? Great. Then carry on. Tired then stop. 

Being sensible is tough. 

but if you ignore your body it will make you stop. 

Example fainting .. You get overheated you aren't getting enough oxygen to your brain your body makes you feel rough light headed whoosy it wants you to sit down or lie down so it can get blood to your head. You ignore . Next thing you faint pass out flat on the floor . You wake up a few seconds later with lots of blood now reaching your head as you've laid down. But wait you didn't do it. Oh yes your body caused it to save you . 

The same with fatigue ignore it keep doing what you want and you'll end up in bed. For a few days feeling rough. Then your body recovers . 

All part of looking after ourselves .. You will get the hang of it by trial and error .. 

Try not to stress ... You are a teenager and your body is at it's most anxious time .. You'll settle as you get older .. 

5

Hi, Will: I live in the U.S. too--in Los Angeles. First off, congratulations on finding this forum. This is a very helpful, supportive group. Second, take a deep breath. You're young, and whatever it is you have, there's every chance of a full recovery. I've had CFS for years (possibly due to some bad decisions) and am way older than you. I'm writing this in the hope that some of my experience may benefit you. Maybe it's just your wording, but it almost sounds like your doctor isn't 100% sure about the need to remove your tonsils. If there is any doubt at all, you might want to see an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist. Or get a second opinion. If you still have a strep infection, that could be causing a lot of your symptoms. You need to be sure you're taking the appropriate antibiotic to get rid of the strep. I once had an infection, got the wrong antibiotic for that particular infection from one doctor, then went to another doctor, who gave me the right medication. The symptoms went away. My symptoms, by the way, included feeling "off." Once you get your throat sorted out, if you’re still ill, you can get bloodwork to see if there's any detectable problem. CFS is a diagnosis of exclusion. Once you've eliminated "testable" possibilities, you can start thinking about CFS. If you do by any chance get to that point, I know some top CFS specialists in the U.S. By the way, if you rule out infection or other obvious causes of your sore throat, there's an outside chance it's caused by CFS. When I came down with CFS, a sore throat was one of my symptoms. But I'm just telling you this for your information down the line. Right now, it's one day at a time. Regarding your anxiety, I've dealt with a lot of anxiety due to the CFS. The most valuable tool I found was a free, online meditation/mindfulness course. This is the MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction) course offered by the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. The course is totally secular. I realize that meditation may be totally off your radar—at 17 years old, I barely even knew what meditation was. But just in case you might be interested, it’s free and it doesn’t have adverse side effects (like almost all medication). Regardless of what you have, because your body is in a vulnerable state, you should avoid any mind-altering substances, like marijuana or alcohol. Then, to optimize your body’s chance of a good recovery, you should eat healthfully, which means no caffeine, sugar, fried foods, and lots of veggies and fruit. It’s important to get a lot of rest and not push yourself to do things, be it tennis or going out when you feel ill. When I first got CFS, I pushed myself, did not get adequate rest, and caused myself to relapse, again and again. You need to advocate for yourself with your parents, so they don’t push you, either. I’m sure they want what’s best for you. Take care, Will. 

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I think that the bacterial infection has taken its toll causing you tiredness.    Once you are clear of this things should perk up

Richard

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Hi Richard. But I've had the infection for months now.i know I'm jumping to conclusions because I'm asking all this when my surgery hasn't even happened. I'll report back once I'm recovered. Praying for it to work. It just seems like it could be chronic fatigue syndrome. 

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good luck and I hope things will improve

R

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Hi Will,

I'm sorry to hear about your problems.  

Here are my suggestions.

Have your doctors discuss your blood tests.

Ask them if you have been tested for Lyme disease and if not, get tested.

Eat healthy, take B-vitamins, especially B-12, and vitamin E, and maybe some omega-3 essential oils if you do not eat a lot of fish.

I don't know if these will do any good, but at least they can do no harm.

Good luck,

Sunny

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thanks. I was tested and it was negative. I also take all those vitamins and it does not do anything. 

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Hi Will, my Fibromyalgia & CFS started when I was about 14yrs old.  Thankfully I didn't look into it enough and get diagnosed until I was 35yrs old.  I'm saying thankfully because I didn't get hooked up with thinking about it all the time when I was younger.  I fought on and put it to the back of my mind.  I won't ever know if I had rested for a year when I was young it would of gone away.  No-one realised I had such a problem so no-one ever suggested it.  

As far as I know strep throat is not a side affect of CFS?  I am also thinking you have now got yourself in a cycle of Panic attacks.  I believe a Panic attack can make you collapse.  You might have an intollarance to Alchol (I personally have never liked the tast or smell of Alchol so have always been T-Total).  You deem seem to keep not doing tennis and then full on tennis.  I wold of thought many people would suffer physically if they did it that way.  I'm surprised your coaches don't want you to ease back into it and then go full on practicing?  Your body can me more tired naturally if you lay down doing nothing (it gets into a bad pattern).  Another option is that the smoking Mairjuana may of given you a long time bad affect.  Maybe you should research the affects on the internet? 

My personal thoughts are that you've got yourself in a horrible Panic/ Anxiety cycle with something definately wrong with your throat. Your throat needs sorting and you need help with how to deal with the Panic/Anxiety attacks. You need to ease back into the tennis. I'm not sure you have CFS I think it's the Panic/Anxiety that's doing it to you (a side affect I believe of taking drugs - even the once I seem to of heard somewhere). Stay away from lots of Alchol - moderation is the key! 

Mentally think that the operation will fix everything and then take it from there. Good Luck    

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Sounds a if you might have M.E. or C.F.S. (we have been told not to lump the two together) I think I might have both after reading about them. Over doing the excercise will make you feel a lot worse, so just take in gently and look after yourself and restr when you need to and don't force yourself to do things, I know that is easy to say and not always possible. I find that the fuzzy head is the worse thing and then the exhaustion and then other peoples misunderstanding can sometimes is the worse thing. I hope this helps.

Try going to see a specialist if you cn find a good one.

Best of luck and you are not alone with this.

Alison

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While you're already feeling run down, pushing yourself with hours of tennis sounds like a bad idea, doesn't it? I think you'd be better off giving yourself a break, and only playing tennis when your feel like you want to, and then relaxing when you feel like you want to relax. When your body is dealing with an infection, you have to give yourself room to recover.

14

Thanks everyone. I also should have stated that my ear nose throat doctor wants to take my tonsils out not my therapist. He recommended it. Also, I do have a general feeling of feeling off not so much anymore. I'm that person who always convinced himself I have a illness that I don't. I thought I had depersonalization from marijuana but it seems dumb to think that now. The combo of anxiety, looking too far into my future, and possible chance of CFS is really making me nervous. I'm applying to colleges in a couple months but feel it's useless bc I won't be able to attend if I have cfs

15

I think you may have an autoimmune disease probably attacking your thyroid you sound similar to me!!!! Ask your doctor to test for antibodies and a peroxidase test . The normal blood tests for hypo and hyper thyroid almost always come back normal and doctors seem to just go by these tests and therefore tell you there is nothing wrong with your thyroid . I suffered for years because of this and was diagnosed with.CFS! I am sorry if this is nt the answer for you but it could be so surely it's worth looking into !good. Luck