Jodi Basset, longtime Australian M.E. patient, author and advocate has died. She was either 39/40 years old*. She had been illl with a severe case of M.E. for over 20 years. Her cause of death was not stated.
http://www.westannouncements.com.au/obituaries/thewest-au/obituary.aspx?pid=180305608
[fright][bimg=fright|no-lightbox]http://www.hfme.org/Artwork/SP_2_lq.jpg[/bimg][/fright]Jodi Basset came down with M.E. in 1995 at the age of 19. She described her onset on the Hummingbird's website:
After being prescribed exercise therapy her disease rapidly progressed until she was severely ill. For the past 15 years or so she had to spend most of her time in bed.
Jodi felt that her attempts at exercise turned what was a mild to moderate case of M.E. into a severe one that she never recovered from.
That never-ending relapse marked her; from then on in she would constantly warn about the dangers of too much exercise particularly early in the disease. She rejected the idea that deconditioning was causing or contributing strongly to M.E. and research has borne that out.
She was able to work on M.E. issues for about an hour a day from her bed, but nevertheless built the huge Hummingbird's website in 2004 which came to encompass hundreds of pages. Her review of CBT/GET ("Smoke and Mirrors") ran to dozens of pages. In 2009 founded the Hummingbird's Foundation. In 2011 she wrote an 160 page book called Caring for the ME Patient.
A important theme for her always was the establishment of M.E. as a disease separate from CFS. She defined M.E. strictly as a disease characterized by damage to the brain stem caused by an enterovirus infection.
Basset was not swayed by evidence that a chronic fatiguing illnesses could be triggered by a number of pathogens. Epstein-Barr Virus played no role in M.E. for her, and neither did other infectious agents such as other herpesviruses, hepatitis, Q fever, Ross river virus, giardia, Borrelia, etc. that many now associate with the disease. She believed that M.E. was purely a enterovirus driven disorder which had strong similarities to polio.
She believed that if your brain scan was normal you had something other than M.E.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome A Wastebasket Diagnosis
She also believed that chronic fatigue syndrome was always a waste-basket disease; that there was essentially no such disease as "CFS". If you were diagnosed with CFS, Basset felt you automatically had something else. (Ironically, almost all of the tests she listed as being determinative for M.E. were validated using patients who met the definition for CFS.)
She believed that chronic fatigue syndrome was created "for the benefit of various political and financial vested interest groups."
[fright][bimg=fright|no-lightbox]http://www.ahummingbirdsguide.com/2013/20GB_three_lq.jpg[/bimg][/fright]
Dedicated Painter
She was also a dedicated painter and regretted that her illness kept from pursuing painting more. In 2005, however, she had an exhibition and in 2012 participated in group show.
http://www.westannouncements.com.au/obituaries/thewest-au/obituary.aspx?pid=180305608
[fright][bimg=fright|no-lightbox]http://www.hfme.org/Artwork/SP_2_lq.jpg[/bimg][/fright]Jodi Basset came down with M.E. in 1995 at the age of 19. She described her onset on the Hummingbird's website:
After being prescribed exercise therapy her disease rapidly progressed until she was severely ill. For the past 15 years or so she had to spend most of her time in bed.
Jodi felt that her attempts at exercise turned what was a mild to moderate case of M.E. into a severe one that she never recovered from.
That never-ending relapse marked her; from then on in she would constantly warn about the dangers of too much exercise particularly early in the disease. She rejected the idea that deconditioning was causing or contributing strongly to M.E. and research has borne that out.
She was able to work on M.E. issues for about an hour a day from her bed, but nevertheless built the huge Hummingbird's website in 2004 which came to encompass hundreds of pages. Her review of CBT/GET ("Smoke and Mirrors") ran to dozens of pages. In 2009 founded the Hummingbird's Foundation. In 2011 she wrote an 160 page book called Caring for the ME Patient.
A important theme for her always was the establishment of M.E. as a disease separate from CFS. She defined M.E. strictly as a disease characterized by damage to the brain stem caused by an enterovirus infection.
Basset was not swayed by evidence that a chronic fatiguing illnesses could be triggered by a number of pathogens. Epstein-Barr Virus played no role in M.E. for her, and neither did other infectious agents such as other herpesviruses, hepatitis, Q fever, Ross river virus, giardia, Borrelia, etc. that many now associate with the disease. She believed that M.E. was purely a enterovirus driven disorder which had strong similarities to polio.
She believed that if your brain scan was normal you had something other than M.E.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome A Wastebasket Diagnosis
She also believed that chronic fatigue syndrome was always a waste-basket disease; that there was essentially no such disease as "CFS". If you were diagnosed with CFS, Basset felt you automatically had something else. (Ironically, almost all of the tests she listed as being determinative for M.E. were validated using patients who met the definition for CFS.)
She believed that chronic fatigue syndrome was created "for the benefit of various political and financial vested interest groups."
[fright][bimg=fright|no-lightbox]http://www.ahummingbirdsguide.com/2013/20GB_three_lq.jpg[/bimg][/fright]
Dedicated Painter
She was also a dedicated painter and regretted that her illness kept from pursuing painting more. In 2005, however, she had an exhibition and in 2012 participated in group show.
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