Do I Have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? Take a Quiz and Find Out

If you're wondering, "Do I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?" why don't you fill out some simple information, take a short quiz and find out how your symptoms score relative to other patients who have been diagnosed to have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The quiz is short, only takes a few seconds, and doing the quiz entitles you to receive a free e-book on the expanding knowledge-base on chronic fatigue and pain related diseases.

Have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? Get Diagnosed and Get Your Life Back
By Jane P Lass

Do I have chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)? Thousands of people are asking themselves that every day, and for some of them the answer is yes. Sufferers of CFS routinely go undiagnosed and therefore untreated - or worse - mis-diagnosed and mis-treated. Many of the symptoms of CFS can easily be mistaken for other more commonly diagnosed illnesses such as the flu, viral infections, or stress. Where many doctors fail in their diagnosis of this disease is the chronic (long term) element of the pervasive symptoms associated with the other illnesses... in other words - they fail to notice that you're visiting their office more than other patients.

Ask Questions About Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
If you think this could be happening to you one of the important questions you can ask your doctor is simply, "Do I have chronic fatigue syndrome?" Putting the question in your doctor's mind will force him or her to more carefully review your file for the frequency of visits and types of symptoms. What symptoms will your doctor be on the lookout for? It's unlikely that they will have adequately recorded the chronic nature of the important symptoms in your medical file. This is because medical databases in the past were limited and recorded your basic information and perhaps diagnoses but not necessarily symptoms. Expanded medical information databases are new and getting much better with regard to recording symptoms and not simply diagnoses.

Your Doctor May Not See the Forest Through the Trees
What this means is that until your medical symptoms history gets long enough for your doctor to be able to see and diagnose long term (chronic) symptoms like those associated with chronic fatigue syndrome, you're going to have to be your own best source of information for your doctor. Ask yourself, "Do I have chronic fatigue syndrome?"

If any of these symptoms are recurring it is important to keep pressing or ask a trained professional, "Do I have chronic fatigue syndrome?" Only a specialist who can properly diagnose your condition can recommend the right chronic fatigue remedy or treatments for your unique condition.

I hope you start feeling better soon.
Jane P. Lass

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jane_P_Lass
http://EzineArticles.com/?Have-Chronic-Fatigue-Syndrome?-Get-Diagnosed-and-Get-Your-Life-Back&id=2480547

Take the quiz. What do you have to lose? It's free.

Fatigue Symptom Checklist - What Ails YOU??

If you run through this fatigue symptom checklist and find that one or more of these symptoms apply to you then I would strongly suggest you visit our website and sign up for our free e-book on the causes, symptoms, and treatments of chronic fatigue. You may discover you don't have chronic fatigue syndrome but keep the free e-book as a gift.

There is a considerable amount of good information on both the difficulties in diagnosing fatigue and the types and combinations of treatments available. Again, the e-book is free just for visiting and signing in.

Fatigue Symptom Checklist - Do Any of These Symptoms Apply to You?
By Jane P Lass

People who are tired a lot are always asking me about making a chronic fatigue symptom checklist, and honestly I've gotten so many requests for one that I'm simply going to have to comply. For those of you who may be experiencing real, continuous fatigue for the first time let me introduce you to a new term: chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). This illness is being diagnosed more and more frequently in the United States. Sadly this debilitating condition often goes mis-diagnosed for years or even decades due to its relatively common symptoms. Only a trained physician with a long and carefully recorded patient history has any real chance at making a proper assessment of a patient with this condition.

What common symptoms might I be talking about? Well that's where this chronic fatigue symptom checklist I'm supposed to put together for you should answer some questions. When you've had a chance to look at the chronic fatigue symptom checklist you'd be well advised to think about how the symptoms on it relate not only to your present feeling of general tired-ness, but also your longer-term history of illness and general activity level. Think about how your life has played out relative to your peers. Do they have less frequent occurrances of the symptoms on the chronic fatigue symptom checklist? Without further adieu, here are some of the symptoms associated with CFS.

Potential Symptoms May Include:

• Extreme tiredness without known cause
• Reduced productivity and or desire to 'live life fully'
• Consistent sore or irritated throat
• Short term memory problems
• Joint and or muscle pain without cause
• Waking up after sleep feeling more tired than you went to bed
• Constant low grade fever and/or headaches

If any of these symptoms are recurring it is important to see chronic fatigue syndrome doctors who can properly diagnose your symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome and get them treated.

I hope you start feeling better soon. Jane P. Lass

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jane_P_Lass
http://EzineArticles.com/?Fatigue-Symptom-Checklist---Do-Any-of-These-Symptoms-Apply-to-You?&id=2479085

Get the free e-book.

Prior post: Always Tired: Chronic Fatigue Steals Your Life

Always Tired - How Chronic Fatigue is Stealing Your Life

Do you find yourself always tired? Many people wake up every day feeling more and more exhausted as a result of chronic fatigue. In America we tend to live fast hard lives where we push ourselves to the limit every day trying to accomplish something only to be thoroughly drained of energy when the time comes to be with friends and family and have fun.

Being always tired when it's time to celebrate with friends and family is no way to live. If you feel exhausted all the time maybe it's time to see someone about it. Here's a personal testimonial about how chronic fatigue effectively stole fifteen years of my life.

Always Tired But Not Anymore
By Jane P Lass

"I was always tired. From the moment I would wake up in the morning until the time I went to bed I would have a lack of energy. It did not make sense for me to feel always tired yet I did. I have not ever led an extravagant lifestyle, I do not make it a habit of being on the run all the time, and I certainly do not have the stress level of other folks the way a single parent does."

That quote was from a patient suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but needless to say there are many causes of illness which have similar effects. Sadly doctors frequently have difficulty differentiating the ultimate causes and aren't always able to provide relief from fatigue.

Common symptoms include (but are not limited to):

• continuous low grade fever
• joint pain
• difficulties with short term memory
• waking up tired on a daily basis

While any and all of these symptoms are attributable to a number of potential causes what should throw up a red flag for individuals suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is the continuous (hence: Chronic) nature of any or all of the aforementioned symptoms - the leading among them being always tired.

Sufferers Often Don't Know What's Going Wrong... or Even If Anything Is Wrong

As an example consider this patient quote: "Yet there I was, waking every day feeling lousy and being always tired. It just wasn't any way to live but I had been to the doctor numerous times, probably an average of three or four times a year for various ailments and just general malaise. It finally cam to a head one day this year when I had simply had enough. I was fed up with being always tired. I went to my doctor on a day I was feeling normal and said, 'Listen, today is like any other day for me, and I feel just plain lousy. I felt lousy yesterday, I feel bad today, and odds are pretty good tomorrow is going to be the same. I've had it!'"

Chronic Illness Comes from a Variety of Potential Culprits

Comments like these are common for people suffering from long term illnesses, whether it is an ingrained pitched battle with something like sinusitis, or perhaps continuing viral or strep infections. Inevitably what happens with these people feeling always tired is that something has got to give. Usually what gives ends up being the patient's spirit. Their desire to live life fully dwindles until they become a shell of their former selves. Sometimes it gets to the point where their own family members don't recognize the personality of their ill relatives anymore because they've become so withdrawn.

Diagnosis Perplexes Doctors

Diagnosis of chronic symptoms like these is extremely difficult for doctors because they are used to reacting to and treating short term issues, such as a cold or flu. Rest and relief medication are the normal prescription for short term sickness. Unfortunately many sufferers of longer term disease do not go back to their doctors after a few days when their being always tired has not subsided. Patients who trust their doctors too much and don't express the nature of continuing symptoms run the risk of not ever feeling better. Being always tired is just no way to go through life.

I interviewed an expert in fatigue, a specialist for those complaining about being always tired. He suggested anyone feeling constantly tired should take a free online fatigue symptoms quiz. Then simply take the quiz results to their doctor and set a course of treatment or further diagnosis. Patients with similar symptoms who are always tired ought to learn more about the cause of their lack of energy symptoms and seek treatment. You don't have to be always tired.

I hope you start feeling better soon.

Jane P. Lass

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jane_P_Lass
http://EzineArticles.com/?Always-Tired-But-Not-Anymore&id=2505759

People Who Wake Up Tired Need to Find Out Why

If you wake up tired every day despite going to bed at a reasonable hour and spending the appropriate amount of time sleeping then you owe it to yourself to get checked out to find out why. You should not wake up tired in the morning and think, "this is normal" - because it is not normal to be tired after 8 hours sleep.

If you find that you feel like a truck has run over you in the morning, or you need several cups of coffee in the morning just to feel "awake" then maybe it's time to start asking your doctor some tough questions such as, "Why am I always tired? Why do I wake up tired in the morning?" Your doctor should either be referring you to a specialist or talking to you about chronic fatigue syndrome.

Wake Up Tired? Lack of Energy Shouldn't Ruin Your Life
By Jane P Lass

There are lots of reasons people wake up tired. While many people do live life in the fast lane some do not, yet the still wake up tired like the type A personality people. What is different about someone suffering from a lack of energy? Why do I wake up tired when I know I should be fine?

There are many possible causes for someone to feel tired frequently, but given the lives we all lead it can be an impossible task for your doctor to sort out what may be causing your particular symptoms. Could it be that you have allergies causing sleep problems? Maybe you have an issue with sleep apnea? Could it be stress related? There are just too many things going on in our lives to know for certain without exhaustive research into the root causes. Asking our doctors to know our lives in that great detail is really no longer an option.

In my own case I'd suffered so long I just couldn't stand it anymore. I new I wasn't the state champion performer I used to be and I did not want to continue going through life as a zombie. It was time to get some answers and make some changes. Life was so listless I was ready to do just about anything to get my energy levels back where they used to be.

I didn't want to wake up tired anymore. I didn't want to miss out on parties and gatherings for lack of energy ever again. Most of all...I did not want to dread getting out of bed every day.

That is why read everything about people who wake up tired. Reading their stories helped me decide not to wake up tired anymore. I got help.

I hope you start feeling better soon. - Jane P. Lass

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jane_P_Lass
http://EzineArticles.com/?Wake-Up-Tired?-Lack-of-Energy-Shouldnt-Ruin-Your-Life&id=2505988

Feeling Tired Upon Waking Was Getting Old

I couldn't take it anymore, feeling tired upon waking had simply gotten to the point where I could no longer stand it. I had been taking notice of my energy level versus friends I knew who were my age and I knew I wasn't keeping up. I wanted more from life and doing what I has been doing just wasn't going to cut it. I needed a change, because doing the same thing over and over again while wishing for a different result was driving me insane.

Feeling Tired Upon Waking Made Me Not Want to Wake Up At All
I couldn't figure out what why I was feeling tired upon waking, I only knew that I hated getting out of bed on bright sunny days, and on rainy days I wouldn't get out of bed at all if I didn't have to work. It eventually got to the point where I just didn't even enjoy seeing friends and family anymore because I felt like if I showed up today but not next time I would be letting them down. It's crazy how terrible the mind can be when you are always feeling tired and depressed, and for a very long time I was sick and depressed. And it was getting worse.

My Eureka Moment - A Breath of Fresh, Extremely Cold Air
One day on an extremely cold winter day (we're talking -20*F here) it was so cold that the swelling in particular areas relative to breathing contracted and all of a sudden there was this HUUUGE WHOOOSH! of air into my lungs. It felt as though I was breathing for the first time it was so much air. My inability to breath HAD to be a major cause of my fatigue problems. If super cold air could give me a burst of air and energy and vitality... then I needed to figure out how to get more air ALL the time.

Enter My Primary Care Physician
My PCP had seen me numerous times over the previous five years, and always sent me away with either anti-biotics or a simple, "Sorry you feel bad, you have a common virus." He may have been right about the virus, but I ALWAYS had "Just a virus"? Everyday? Weeks, months, and years at a time? Come on. That can't be right.

It wasn't. The next time I saw him I went to visit him while I was "perfectly" fine. I laid out the facts:

• I was feeling as good as I ever felt
• I still felt like cr*p
• I had no intention of feeling this way any longer
• I wanted his help or I was going to find someone else

We Needed a New Treatment Plan for My Chronic Fatigue Symptoms
That pretty much laid down the law. We talked more in depth about my health history and decided I needed to investigate a chronic breathing problem, and that it would be a good idea to review my other symptoms of fatigue to determine whether I was suffering from one of the chronic fatigue related illnesses, such as chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia or perhaps something else. In my case I was suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, in addition to continuously infected tonsils. I'm about mid way through my treatment plan to stabilized my health situation, but I can tell you this... I no longer am feeling tired upon waking.

I Didn't Want to Wake Up Tired Anymore

Every day I would wake up tired. I couldn't avoid it. It didn't matter if I went to bed early or late, it was a given I would open my eyes in the morning feeling like I had a mild hangover. As you can imagine, that was no way to start the day - and yet that is exactly how every day started for me.

I Wasn't A Morning Person... But Suddenly Not An Evening Person Either?
Waking up tired day after day made me convinced I just wasn't a morning person, which some people aren't. When I started coming home after regular work days feeling like I suddenly wasn't feeling much like an evening person either... I started to wonder what the heck was going wrong.

Fatigue Is A Grinding, Insidious Disease
Before long I was dropping out... of life. On the rare occasion when I did see friends they'd always joke that I'd dropped off the face of the Earth. It wasn't all that far from the truth. I'd stopped going out, I didn't participate in any team sports any more, and I'd even stopped running, which I'd been doing from the time I was five years old. How does someone go from being a star athlete with unbounded energy to a person who'd wake up tired everyday and not want to ever get out of bed?

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Was The Cause Of My Problems
I finally got fed up. I just didn't want to wake up tired anymore and I was sick of one doctor after another telling me I had a minor viral infection. My reponse finally became, "NO KIDDING! I am ALWAYS feeling like I have a virus infection! Seriously, I can't be THIS unlucky - if my immune system was that week I'd be dead already!" I guess throwing a nutty woke up my doctor. He said that persons who wake up tired may be suffering other symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome.

Lack of Energy Was Defining My Life

I couldn't help it - the complete lack of energy I had kept me away from friends, family, and at times... work too. I wanted to enjoy the great relationships I had developed over the years but I just didn't have the get up and go I needed to motivate myself to go see people or do things. Commitment to do anything was something I couldn't make myself do. My life, my friends, my job all suffered because I couldn't muster the energy to keep going.

I Tried Just About Everything
I had tried allergy medications, but they turned me into even more of a walking zombie. I tried diets. I tried exercising myself to exhaustion. I tried anti-biotics. Nothing worked and I was in a deep depression. Eventually I had resigned myself to the truth that this was all my life was going to be.

I Didn't Know It Didn't Have to Be This Way
Hindsight is 20/20 the saying goes... My doctors kept telling me that I was suffering from a virus infection which would clear up in a few days... and they'd send me away. But because I always felt crummy... it never occurred to me that my doctor might be wrong. My symptoms were not short term. My fatigue was chronic. Day in, day out, my lack of energy was just enough to keep me from enjoying my life.

It Doesn't Have to Be the Same for You
If you aren't feeling your best day after day, fill out the brief symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome survey.

Always So Tired - My Battle with Chronic Fatigue

I was always so tired. I would go to sleep at night just dreading the coming of morning. I knew that when the sun came up I simply wouldn't want to join it. If it was raining outside... forgeddaboudit!

I Had Become a Zombie
My inability to participate in the human race was causing me to just barely live. I could make myself get up to go to work and trade some of my time for some money, but outside that I could barely function at all. I would wake up tired and spend my day just trying to make it through without (getting caught) falling asleep on the job. Thank heavens I had an office to myself - I'm sure that had I been in a cubicle somewhere I would have been toast long ago... but that's another story.

My Doctors Couldn't See the Forest Through The Trees
I had seen various doctors (general practicitioners) over the years but I never really had a history long enough with any one of them for them to be able to say, "Hey Jane, you really seem to be sick and tired a lot. What's really going on?" I would constantly get throat infections, felt like I had fever all the time, and just generally felt lousy.

I Had All But Given Up On Life
I had resigned myself to the belief that this might be all there is. If I had not had some amazing friends I might have simply dwindled away the balance of my days because I simply had given up the fight myself. It was only once prodded by a friend to try acting that I realized how much of life I was missing... and that my energy level was far below that of most everyone I knew. Something was dreadfully wrong, and I needed to do something... ANYTHING... to try to get better.


Research Was Critical
The expansion of medical related information on the web was critical to helping me figure out what was wrong with me. I was able to compare my symptoms of chronic fatigue with the testimonials of other fatigue sufferers and finally start to get some answers. I owe a lot to the efforts of researchers and others in the medical community who have worked tirelessly to document the vast number of illnesses the cause people to turn into walking zombies and be always so tired. I didn't want my life to continue this way. I got facts, I got treatment, and now I'm feeling the results. I'm not always so tired anymore.

Always Tired? Welcome to My (Former) World

Always Tired - Lack of Energy
I can't begin to tell you what being always tired felt like. It would start in the morning when I would wake up tired and continue throughout the day. Honestly I'd wake up feeling like someone had punched me in the face every morning. Not the best way to start the day.

Aching Joints
Then the minute I got dressed after showering, I'd have a generally tired, lack of energy kind feeling. I'd get out to the car and head off to work but with the modestly long car ride my joints would ache before I'd get to work. It was just simply a miserable way to live. Being constantly tired is no way to live.

I'm Not the Only One Suffering
I finally caught a break when someone mentioned they had seen something about people who were always tired with achy joints so after poking around on the web I found some information about chronic fatigue sufferers. Apparently lots of people get tired all the time like me.

Symptoms Quiz Helped My Doctor Diagnose Me
I took a short quiz on the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome to determine whether I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I benefitted by reviewing the information because next time I met with my doctor I was much more forceful about telling him something was wrong. A visit with an ENT specialist determined my tonsils were constantly infected, and needed to come out (it was painful.. let me tell you but soooo worth it).

Afterward
After the pain from the surgery disappeared I am feeling so much better and I'm much more active now than I have been in years.

Take the Quiz
You may or may not have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but take the fatigue quiz anyway... the information you learn may help you next time you see your doctor.