Monday, March 23, 2015

Sounds Familiar

Profound, debiliating fatigue found to be a major issue for autoimmune disease patients in new national survey
Major findings include:
● Almost all (98 percent) AD patients surveyed report they suffer from fatigue.
● Nine-in-10 (89 percent) say it is a "major issue" for them and six-in-10 (59 percent) say it is "probably the most debilitating symptom of having an AD."
● More than two-thirds (68 percent) say their "fatigue is anything but normal. It is profound and prevents [them] from doing the simplest everyday tasks."
● While nearly nine-in-10 (87 percent) report they have discussed their fatigue with their doctor, six-in 10 (59 percent) say they have not been prescribed or suggested treatment by their doctors.
● Seven-in-10 (70 percent) believe others judge them negatively because of their fatigue.

 I am no longer convinced these are "autoimmune" illnesses.   They are just regular old-fashioned immune responses to infections that aren't being detected.   But nonetheless, fatigue is the primary expected symptom, not some side effect or figment of our imaginations.
According to one AD patient, "It's difficult for other people to understand our ongoing fatigue when it can't be seen by them. It's so hard just trying to get others to really, really understand how very tired you are sometimes -- even our own doctors don't understand. One wonders if even our doctors may think we are for the most part just mental cases and/or whiners."
Uh huh.
98% of patients report this symptom and we're the ones with cognitive problems.
See the matrix.