Sunday, April 25, 2010

It's not just feeling tired all the time....

http://www.name-us.org/MECFSExplainPages/SymptomsLists.htm


Neurological/Cognitive SymptomsEasily confused
Slow information processing
Difficulty retrieving words
Occasional slurred speech
Occasional dyslexia
Difficulty with mathematics
Easily distracted
●Forgetfulness (primarily short-term)
Attention deficit
Inability to focus vision and attention
Inability to cope with fast-paced tasks
Overall feeling of "spaciness" or "brainfog"


Motor Disturbances:
●Loss of muscular coordination
Muscle weakness
Muscle twitching
Loss of balance and clumsiness


Overload phenomena:
hypersensitivities to light, sound motion, odors
Inability to block out background noise and focus on on conversation
Informational overload with inability to multi-task
●Motor overload, with staggering and weakness
dizziness
numbness
●tinnitus (ringing in the ears)
●nausea
●shooting pain

●Overload may cause temporary immobilization


Immune Dysfunction
●A general ill or flu-like feeling, more frequent in the acute onset stage of the illness, less frequent in the chronic stages, most notably post-exertionally
tender lymph nodes
recurrent sore throat
new food sensitivities
new chemical sensitivities
hyper-sensitivity to medications and their side-effects
allergies

Sleep Dysfunction
frequent awakenings
nightmares or agitated dreams
non-restorative sleep
variations in sleepiness and energy throughout the day
●hypersomnia (excessive sleeping)
●Restless legs syndrome
periodic limb movement disorder (jerking or twitching during sleep)

Pain
●generalized muscle pain
●new onset headaches
aching, burning shooting pains anywhere in the body
fibromyalgia is a common concurrent syndrome with ME/CFS
●arthralgia without joint swelling
●Veteran M.E. practitioners sometimes noted that pain is most frequent in the upper spine and neck area
abdominal pain


Post-Exertional Malaise and Fatigue
Flu-like or hangover feeling following minimal physical or mental exertion, sometimes immediate, sometimes delayed several hours or a day or more and associated with immune activation, with sore throat, tender lymph glands, general malaise, increased pain and cognitive symptoms
Feeling worse after exercise, rather than better
Taking a prolonged time to return to pre-exertional function level
Lack of endurance

Autonomic Manifestations
Orthostatic Intolerance:
●Neurally mediated hypotension (NMH) i.e. problems with regulation of blood pressure and pulse, especially when standing still; with symptoms of dizziness, lightheadedness, slow response to verbal stimuli; an urgency to lie down
Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) i.e. Excessive heart rate during 10 minutes of standing still; blood pressure drop upon standing; lightheadedness, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, irregular breathing, visual changes sweating, headaches.
●Delayed postural hypotension i.e. blood pressure drop after many minutes of standing, rather than upon standing
●tilt table test abnormalities


Other autonomic manifestations:
Palpitations with or without cardiac arrhythmias
●24-hour Holter monitor results with oscillating T-wave inversions and/or flat T-wave
●breathing dysregulation
shortness of breath
intestinal irregularities
●irritable bowel syndrome
●diarrhea
constipation

●alternating diarrhea and constipation
●abdominal cramps
●bloating
●nausea
●anorexia
●urinary frequency
●painful urination
●excessive urination at night
●pain in lower abdomen

Neuroendocrine Manifestations
loss of thermostatic stability (fluctuations in body temperature; fluctuations of cold and hot in different parts of the body; intolerance to extremes in air temperature; low body temperature)
●night sweats or other sweating episodes
weight change, with loss of appetite in some patients or abnormal weight gain in others
●worsening of symptoms under increased stress (physical or emotional)
●loss of adaptation to situations of overload
●anxiety

This is the most complete and most easily understood list of symptoms that I've found on the internet.  The other list that is pretty complete is the Canadian CFS/ME diagnostic manual.

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