The Fatigue has Forced me to Drop Out of College

[ExhaustedAndy]

I've been working on an Engineering degree for 4 years now. I didn't know I was sick when I went first signed up, and had a very hard time keeping up the first year, but passed through with a pretty high B+ GPA.

I got diagnosed in 2021 when a bout of COVID caused me to become severe to the point of being bedridden for a span of about 10 months. Eventually I recovered from the severity of that episode, back to a state of relatively mild illness. I got cocky, I thought I was healthy enough to go back to school after a few years break. "I have management strategies now, I know what I'm up against!" I thought.

September was fine. I made a bunch of great new friends. I was on top of my work, though quite exhausted already, and passed my first mid terms without any issues.

Then it hit me. I had one day where I had to stay up for the entire day to take a long and difficult math midterm at 7 P.M. I passed the midterm well with a 92. Then, the next day, the crash hit. Since then, I lost my ability to concentrate. I have gone to multiple 3 hour long tutorial sessions, and have not managed to complete a single question in any of them. I am weeks behind in homework in multiple classes, I'm not even close to prepared for final exams and have to spend my time doing old assignments worth large % of grades instead of trying to prepare.

I thought spending the entirety of reading week in bed would be a good way to bounce back. Even when I was severe, spending 2-3 weeks in bed was pretty much enough to bounce back for a while.

I was wrong about that too. It wasn't enough. In fact, following the week long break, I am even less well than I was before the break. It's over.

I do not envy anyone who is still trying to struggle through this, and wish the absolute best of luck and best of health to anyone who is.

Please share your story if you have been through this.

Thank you.

 

[Baz493]

Sorry to hear your story Andy. Decades ago I was a little luckier that my first bout of chronic fatigue, although it absolutely floored me when I wasn't working, allowed me enough energy to cope with workloads when I got to work. That also helped me to identify the chemical I was being exposed to at work which caused the condition; trichloroethylene. I never worked out what caused my second bout but my third was caused by cat scratch disease and fourth by liver failure. The doctors never investigated any of the conditions until I received help from a GP with the last one, identifying a range of resulting health issues. I haven't recovered from the fourth bout though now know that a lot of the issues revolve around dysfunction of the mTOR pathway in my body. I wish you all the best trying to work out the cause of your own condition.

 

[CLF]

I've been working on an Engineering degree for 4 years now. I didn't know I was sick when I went first signed up, and had a very hard time keeping up the first year, but passed through with a pretty high B+ GPA.

I got diagnosed in 2021 when a bout of COVID caused me to become severe to the point of being bedridden for a span of about 10 months. Eventually I recovered from the severity of that episode, back to a state of relatively mild illness. I got cocky, I thought I was healthy enough to go back to school after a few years break. "I have management strategies now, I know what I'm up against!" I thought.

September was fine. I made a bunch of great new friends. I was on top of my work, though quite exhausted already, and passed my first mid terms without any issues.

Then it hit me. I had one day where I had to stay up for the entire day to take a long and difficult math midterm at 7 P.M. I passed the midterm well with a 92. Then, the next day, the crash hit. Since then, I lost my ability to concentrate. I have gone to multiple 3 hour long tutorial sessions, and have not managed to complete a single question in any of them. I am weeks behind in homework in multiple classes, I'm not even close to prepared for final exams and have to spend my time doing old assignments worth large % of grades instead of trying to prepare.

I thought spending the entirety of reading week in bed would be a good way to bounce back. Even when I was severe, spending 2-3 weeks in bed was pretty much enough to bounce back for a while.

I was wrong about that too. It wasn't enough. In fact, following the week long break, I am even less well than I was before the break. It's over.

I do not envy anyone who is still trying to struggle through this, and wish the absolute best of luck and best of health to anyone who is.

Please share your story if you have been through this.

Thank you.

Are you taking Vitamin B1? 100 mg./day has been shown effective in COVID.

 

[Jean Gould]

I've been working on an Engineering degree for 4 years now. I didn't know I was sick when I went first signed up, and had a very hard time keeping up the first year, but passed through with a pretty high B+ GPA.

I got diagnosed in 2021 when a bout of COVID caused me to become severe to the point of being bedridden for a span of about 10 months. Eventually I recovered from the severity of that episode, back to a state of relatively mild illness. I got cocky, I thought I was healthy enough to go back to school after a few years break. "I have management strategies now, I know what I'm up against!" I thought.

September was fine. I made a bunch of great new friends. I was on top of my work, though quite exhausted already, and passed my first mid terms without any issues.

Then it hit me. I had one day where I had to stay up for the entire day to take a long and difficult math midterm at 7 P.M. I passed the midterm well with a 92. Then, the next day, the crash hit. Since then, I lost my ability to concentrate. I have gone to multiple 3 hour long tutorial sessions, and have not managed to complete a single question in any of them. I am weeks behind in homework in multiple classes, I'm not even close to prepared for final exams and have to spend my time doing old assignments worth large % of grades instead of trying to prepare.

I thought spending the entirety of reading week in bed would be a good way to bounce back. Even when I was severe, spending 2-3 weeks in bed was pretty much enough to bounce back for a while.

I was wrong about that too. It wasn't enough. In fact, following the week long break, I am even less well than I was before the break. It's over.

I do not envy anyone who is still trying to struggle through this, and wish the absolute best of luck and best of health to anyone who is.

Please share your story if you have been through this.

Thank you.

I felt sick too at 22 years old, it was a CMV infection, 4 days in hospital, and I never came back. A rest can take months, we are like Tuberculosis patients needing rest, calm and sun.
Just a British example :

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1476577117097844736

A young life, interrupted: finding hope – and an identity – while suffering from long Covid

One question dominates 24-year-old Ravi Veriah Jacques’s thoughts: who will he be after his illness?

www.theguardian.com

British talks about his health and recovery. https://www.youtube.com/@HealthRecovery
Another British, a gifted Structural engineer, speaks about the CFS.

https://www.youtube.com/@GetWellFromME

 

[Lasse]

I have ME/CFS symptoms and POTS from Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) triggered by Lyme disease.
Possibly your symptoms are also linked to MCAS as many with Long COVID also seem to have MCAS.

The first thing you should do is rule out if you have POTS which is very common in those with ME/CFS/MCAS. Take your resting heart rate when you are sitting, then you must stand still for 10 minutes. If your heart rate has increased by more than 30 beats per minute or is over 120 beats per minute it is a sign of POTS.

In consultation with your doctor, you can try medicines against MCAS to see if there are any medicines that make you better. If you should get better from any of the medicines against MCAS, I must offer a warning. Within a month of starting 300mg Ranitidine I became symptom free from all my ME/CFS symptoms and I started exercising. Within a few months I had a horrible relapse and was almost as bad as I was before I started Ranitidine. A few months later poison was found in Ranitidine and it was banned and I was bedridden for 6 months before I got Famogast 40 mg ordered from abroad. So take it easy even if you were to get better.

• Symptoms of mast cell activation
• Here's How You Treat Long Covid | Lessons From MCAS - Dr Tina Peers
• The Role of MCAS in Long Covid With World Leading Specialist Dr Lawrence Afrin


From Natinonal Library of Medicine.
• Mast cell activation symptoms are prevalent in Long-COVID
• Covid-19 hyperinflammation and post-Covid-19 illness may be rooted in mast cell activation syndrome
• Immunological dysfunction and mast cell activation syndrome in chronic COVID

 

[ExhaustedAndy]

British talks about his health and recovery. https://www.youtube.com/@HealthRecovery
Another British, a gifted Structural engineer, speaks about the CFS.

https://www.youtube.com/@GetWellFromME

Very interesting series! Probably the most accurate videos I've seen so far describing the condition. Massive amounts of misleading info out there...This must be one of the most poorly understood disorders on earth.

Are you taking Vitamin B1? 100 mg./day has been shown effective in COVID.

It wasn't literally COVID, it was actually the vaccine that messed me up. I usually avoid mentioning that as I have been banned from forums for mentioning that before. I haven't done vitamins beside C.

I have ME/CFS symptoms and POTS from Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) triggered by Lyme disease.
Possibly your symptoms are also linked to MCAS as many with Long COVID also seem to have MCAS.

POTS has already been ruled out (I was quite sure I did have it, turns out I don't.) I don't think I have MCAS as I have none of the other symptoms, it's a pretty conventional CFS profile, which I suppose is very unconventional compared to almost all other diseases.

 

[Baz493]

Early when this first hit you did you ever notice anything like reddish brown urine? If so that might have indicated severe muscle damage (rhabdomyolysis) with resulting types of autoimmune myopathy generally termed myositis. That presents with a similar pattern to chronic fatigue but is more akin to old age sarcopenia (muscle deterioration). Things like toxic exposures can result in that.

 

[ExhaustedAndy]

Early when this first hit you did you ever notice anything like reddish brown urine? If so that might have indicated severe muscle damage (rhabdomyolysis) with resulting types of autoimmune myopathy generally termed myositis. That presents with a similar pattern to chronic fatigue but is more akin to old age sarcopenia (muscle deterioration). Things like toxic exposures can result in that.

I do not have any of the common physical symptoms besides mild tension headache. No other aches/pains or gastrointestinal issues. It's just conventional CFS stuff.

 

[Baz493]

Have you investigated thyroid function? I have been looking closely at how hypothyroidism, insulin resistance, and mTOR dysfunction (regulating death of diseased cells) are all interrelated, generally with the same causes and dietary interventions. Covid can cause thyroid disease. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8530797/ It's also possible, as I know from my own case, that your thyroid hormone levels can be within normal range yet you can still be hypothyroid. The links I could provide are all commercial sites, which would result in the post being deleted, but you can look them up by either typing subclinical hypothyroid or normal thyroid hormone levels hypothyroid. I have been putting together how gluten allergy and high dairy intake resulted in my own thyroid issues.

 

[ExhaustedAndy]

Have you investigated thyroid function? I have been looking closely at how hypothyroidism, insulin resistance, and mTOR dysfunction (regulating death of diseased cells) are all interrelated, generally with the same causes and dietary interventions. Covid can cause thyroid disease. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8530797/ It's also possible, as I know from my own case, that your thyroid hormone levels can be within normal range yet you can still be hypothyroid. The links I could provide are all commercial sites, which would result in the post being deleted, but you can look them up by either typing subclinical hypothyroid or normal thyroid hormone levels hypothyroid. I have been putting together how gluten allergy and high dairy intake resulted in my own thyroid issues.

Yes I got checked and cleared for this. I've had the disorder for at least 10 years now, and have been through the whole gauntlet of tests already. Mostly I was just hoping that I was recovered enough to tolerate school (dead wrong.)