This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/cfs by /u/CriticalMouse4965 on 2025-01-19 15:41:00+00:00.
I went from being my healthiest ever 3 years ago to my absolute worst. 3 years ago I got pregnant with my second baby, and at 5 weeks I got what was probably COVID. It only lasted 4 days but it was pretty bad, I almost brought myself to the hospital but did a bunch of breathing exercises to clean out my lungs and I was alright in just a few days. However the tiredness that I attributed to the first trimester never went away. I’ve never been so tired. My life completely fell apart, because at the same time my husband’s alcoholism basically consumed his life. My daughter just turned two and I am STILL struggling with fatigue. My mom suggested maybe it was long covid and it dawned on me she’s probably right. It comes in waves, for example I somehow found the energy to plant my huge garden and fight weeds while working full time and caring for the kids, but then I got the flu or something in July and energy went straight back down to zero, taking months to recover, tho I still haven’t. I got a bunch of supplements and I was like yay I guess it was just a nutritional deficiency but it’s like progress is always temporary. I’ll have spurts of energy and normalcy then revert back to wanting to sleep all day. Anyway that’s my back story. I have shrugged it off as just being under a ton of stress, mood disorder, depression, postpartum depression and having two littles but the level of tiredness I feel is not normal and I have to figure this out.
What scares me is reading about fibromyalgia and CFS or seems like I’m getting really mild symptoms of these illnesses. Extreme exhaustion after doing something I felt I had the energy for. II will randomly have what could be described as fibromyalgia like pain but only occasionally and very localized. I have recently learned that I absolutely have myofascial pain syndrome in my neck and shoulders and that has been present since i was a teenager, not sure if that’s relevant but it seems related to fibromyalgia.
Tldr: Did any of you develop symptoms gradually? Or was it just overnight? Reading this sub is absolutely terrifying the level of debilitation it causes. If I can catch this early I will do literally anything to not have it get any worse.