Guides to living with ME/cfs

My name is Laure Wiggers, I'm from the Netherlands and I got ME/cfs, POTS and MCAS at the age of 13, maybe 14 years old. After two bloodtests my doctor told me to come back in a year if my fatigue, headaches and stomach problems had not dissapeared. I asked my parents if I could quit school but that was not an option. So I tried my best to keep my eyes open while I biked to school and would sit with my head resting in my arms, unable to pay attention. 

 

After a year my doctor could tell me that I've had Pfeiffer at some point in my life but otherwise there was nothing he could do for me. I took to google and asked for many referals to doctors who also, sadly, couldnt help me. At some point I even started going to lots of different alternative medicine practitioners, to no avail. In all this time I have managed to finish an education in sports and movement. Eventhough I was depressed I was somehow able to get to the last year of my physiotherapy education. I only needed to do two half year internships. Because of all the walking and standing I had to push myself more than I ever had. I really wanted to finish my education so if everyone told me that I was healthy than surely it would be okay to push through the symptoms right? After months of pushing myself, my ME/cfs progressed from light-mild all the way to moderate-severe. 

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The upside is that a doctor would finaly recogise my conditons when I was 26 years old. About 12 years after getting sick. I was lucky enough to end up at the few places in the Netherlands that can actualy help people with ME and POTS without doing more damage. It is at this time that I found out there is a lot of helpfull knowlage in patiënt groups. It has gotten me from moderate-severe to moderate with almost no symptoms and a decent quatity of life. 

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It has now become my hobby and mission to bundel the knowladge of patiënts to give it back to the community.

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