CFS 4 Aug 09 diet exhaustion

Hello All,

A new surprise for me today. I have felt really good for two days. Started on Sunday arvo. Just all of a sudden I really felt good for the first time in a long time. I know to not trust these feelings but to enjoy them while they last.

Today I went to a friend's to get my taxes done. Just after we went out to eat, their treat. It was a buffet of Asian dishes. I had a bit more than I probably ought to have as I was hungry. Great conversation, good food, good time. After we walked to an Asian bakery and bought some small cakes to take with us. Next to an Asian grocery where my friends buy personal supplies. There I started to get weak.

I immediately knew what had happened. I had eaten too big of a meal and all the blood of my body was rushing to my gut. I got dizzy enough that I excused myself and went out to sit on the sidewalk rather than falling in the store. My friend has had CFS for over 20 years and has successfully accomplished the rigors of bicycling to become one of Australia's World Champions in the Master division. She understands the condition and understands the immediacy of needing to sit quickly.

I was quite foggy, though still conversational as we walked to the car. When we got home, I nibbled a bit of the cake then needed to leave as I still needed to drive into the city to buy some needed ingredients for my larder. Just as I was leaving I received a phone call from a friend that I hoped to meet up with in the city. She was talking so fast that it was just a blur and then I realized just how tired I was. I had to ask her to slow down as I could not understand her at all. I felt much like I have heard people with a stroke that think they are talking coherently while talking mumbles. I knew where I was. I knew where I needed to go but not how to get there. And with my friend's rapid conversation I was so disoriented that I pulled over and stopped the car. Even though I have driven into the area that I was going to before, I couldn't coordinate my brain to recognize the directions from my friend over the phone. We agreed to meet near the grocery that I was going to.

Later I got a message saying that she had decided to go home as she was tired also. Enroute, I missed my turn and drove 10-15 kilometers around the area trying to understand the map, the direction I was going, where I was. I arrived, bought my stuff and headed home. Also, I arrived safely.

I actually got better as time went on as the food digested from my stomach.

Lesson learned. When eating out with CFS, do not let the eyes do the talking of how much to eat. This life is such a careful balance of all nuances of every breathe all the time. How I mix with friends, what I think, what I say, how I feel everything.

Friends, I sit in amazement of the levels of exhaustion that can be visited by a human. I am healthy, I take my vitamins, my blood is good, blood sugar levels are good, all is well......except that I am running way below the empty line of energy in too many situations. I have thought about writing a book to describe to healthy people of exhaustion. As I sit here now at my computer I am relatively fine. And, I sit here in near disbelief of how I felt earlier today. And though I have attempted a few times to describe to my friends just how low I am feeling, I know that they cannot comprehend it. And, my energy is GREAT to most people with CFS. How they cope, they that cannot even get out of bed is beyond me. I am so blessed to be so healthy as I am even now.

My Cyclist friend is a story in herself. She was diagnosed with CFS and Fibro Myalgia at the age or around 45. Her old time doctor told her as told to me, "Dear, you can go home an lay on your couch the rest of your life or get on a bicycle and start riding." She started to ride. She has told me how some nights to ride 100 meters up the road and back was agony. 15 years later, she just won the World Jersey in 5 different events. Her TV wall is covered with racks to hold all the medals and trophies that she has won. In a picture case resides the jersey.

Now, though she says that she is tired and doesn't desire to ride so much. The last ride she did with the men they had a 30k average for the day. That is better than my friend and I ever did in all the days of our riding. She is still WOW to me.

Best wishes to all of you that read this. Love to hear from you sometime.

bodyshine@iinet.net.au

If you are healthy and reading this..... I urge you to not over do anything any time in your life. Keep up the vitamins always. Eat really well. that is not eating LOTS but eating good food properly cooked to get the most nutrients.

If you have CFS and are reading this.... write to me. I am on a program that seems to be helping. I have not got it all worked out yet, but I feel better than I did a month ago.

peace

gene