• Katie - My Story So Far

    My name is Katie and I am 26 years old and this is my story so far.

    I was a hairdresser and was working a lot of hours in a very busy salon where I was lucky to get a lunch and never had any breaks. I was always overbooked and normally had a waiting list of 4 weeks for an appointment. In January last year (2003.) I had a virus which was a flu type thing, the cold disappeared but I still felt exhausted, but because I’d already been off work for 2 weeks I felt I needed to be back at work.

    I kept trying to go back to work but within hours of being there I would have to come home, often in floods of tears because I felt so ill. After many trips to the doctor I was diagnosed with post viral fatigue syndrome and was told to rest, but resting is not something I was used to so I would find things to do in the home. I think this was my biggest mistake, I just didn’t take the illness seriously. If I had known that 2 years later I would be virtually bed ridden I would of rested a lot more.

    During the time I have been ill I have had every test possible done (some very painful.) and have tried every alternative treatment possible. It does get me really down sometimes but I just remind myself that there’s a lot of people much worse off than me. Luckily I still have a good sense of humour and enjoy nothing more than a good laugh. I spend most of my time catching up on celebrity gossip and watching TV and looking after my pesky cats and pesky husband ;0)

    I would love to hear from anyone.

    Stay strong.