Hello, I'm new to this website and this is my first post - so just wanted to share my story and see if i'm in the right place/there are others out there with a similar experience to me.
Before i begin i just want to disclaim that i really appreciate there are a lot of folk on here that have it a lot worse than me and may struggle to do simple daily activities, and although i am grateful i have not had it worse, from my personal perspective, sport is a major part of who i am and my only real hobby and i no longer have the privalege of partaking in it, or going on long walks/up hills with friends and family which i used to do very regularly.
Before anything happened i had been training as part of a rowing squad at uni/ was into sport at school, and had been training about 10 times a week for the duration of uni - i ended up doing quite well (for me anyway) competing for the national team the summer before.
In january 2019 (my last year of uni), i had a pretty bad virus and was off uni/training for a couple of weeks. I thought i had mostly got over it and was back at uni etc, however could feel especially at training that i wasn't quite right yet. I got waves of feeling slightly feverish and dizzy. However i continued to train through it for about a week (i'll explain that i knew this wasn't the right thing to do, but i was putting so much pressure on myself to get back and had done similar things before and been ok), then ended up ill and had to take another couple of weeks off. I did this cycle of training and rest another two times before i realised i needed to take this seriously and look after my health/take some serious time away from training. At that point i was barely able to walk into uni (about 20 mins) and was really struggling to study for my exams. Whenever i tried to exercise (e.g. walking/mild exercise) i would get those waves of feeling a bit feverish/dizzy and if i overdid it, i would feel an after effect a few days lag afterwards - this was more muscle pains in my chest/feeling really tired and not able to concentrate on anything.
This has continued until now and i have gone through a lot of trial and error figuring what i can and can't do without triggering these symptoms. I can go for short, flat walks every other day and hold up a desk job but that's about it. I also notice that when i've had a busier than usual day at work, i don't feel great and don't feel able to go on a walk. Or if i try, i get the feverish/dizzy/cloudy head symptoms much sooner.
I have been to the gp multiple times during this period, having every blood test you can think of (anemia/liver/glandular fever/others) and everything came back normal - except my bilirubin which i have been told i have gilbert's but that that wasn't related much to this. I had a couple of bad experiences with the gp where they mostly dismissed what i told them i was feeling and told me it was all in my head. But eventually i got referred to a specialist where he said i had chronic fatigue (it had been going on for almost a year at that point) and was referred to the integrative care centre and now have appointments with a physio to help me with an exercise plan (my first appointment happening soon).
Does this sound like i'm in the right place on here? I have struggled to find people to talk to who understand what i am going/have been through or who don't look at me like i'm just making it up. As if i would make something up that is basically ruining my life... But anyway, was anyone else really into sports/ a lot of hard training? And this has happened as a result?
Thank you so much for reading my waffle
Before i begin i just want to disclaim that i really appreciate there are a lot of folk on here that have it a lot worse than me and may struggle to do simple daily activities, and although i am grateful i have not had it worse, from my personal perspective, sport is a major part of who i am and my only real hobby and i no longer have the privalege of partaking in it, or going on long walks/up hills with friends and family which i used to do very regularly.
Before anything happened i had been training as part of a rowing squad at uni/ was into sport at school, and had been training about 10 times a week for the duration of uni - i ended up doing quite well (for me anyway) competing for the national team the summer before.
In january 2019 (my last year of uni), i had a pretty bad virus and was off uni/training for a couple of weeks. I thought i had mostly got over it and was back at uni etc, however could feel especially at training that i wasn't quite right yet. I got waves of feeling slightly feverish and dizzy. However i continued to train through it for about a week (i'll explain that i knew this wasn't the right thing to do, but i was putting so much pressure on myself to get back and had done similar things before and been ok), then ended up ill and had to take another couple of weeks off. I did this cycle of training and rest another two times before i realised i needed to take this seriously and look after my health/take some serious time away from training. At that point i was barely able to walk into uni (about 20 mins) and was really struggling to study for my exams. Whenever i tried to exercise (e.g. walking/mild exercise) i would get those waves of feeling a bit feverish/dizzy and if i overdid it, i would feel an after effect a few days lag afterwards - this was more muscle pains in my chest/feeling really tired and not able to concentrate on anything.
This has continued until now and i have gone through a lot of trial and error figuring what i can and can't do without triggering these symptoms. I can go for short, flat walks every other day and hold up a desk job but that's about it. I also notice that when i've had a busier than usual day at work, i don't feel great and don't feel able to go on a walk. Or if i try, i get the feverish/dizzy/cloudy head symptoms much sooner.
I have been to the gp multiple times during this period, having every blood test you can think of (anemia/liver/glandular fever/others) and everything came back normal - except my bilirubin which i have been told i have gilbert's but that that wasn't related much to this. I had a couple of bad experiences with the gp where they mostly dismissed what i told them i was feeling and told me it was all in my head. But eventually i got referred to a specialist where he said i had chronic fatigue (it had been going on for almost a year at that point) and was referred to the integrative care centre and now have appointments with a physio to help me with an exercise plan (my first appointment happening soon).
Does this sound like i'm in the right place on here? I have struggled to find people to talk to who understand what i am going/have been through or who don't look at me like i'm just making it up. As if i would make something up that is basically ruining my life... But anyway, was anyone else really into sports/ a lot of hard training? And this has happened as a result?
Thank you so much for reading my waffle
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