Laughing from my sickbed about my profile....

One  bad day in the mid-80's: hubby's idea of lightening the mood, a gorilla-gram!  I love that I have a bracelet on even when sick.

If I had any idea whatsoever as to what the profile questions were about, I'd 
answer them, no problem!   I really don't mean to sound mysterious.

I'm a wife, a mom and, I hope, a good friend.  My "long-suffering" hubby and I 
have known each other for 37 years, meeting on, of all things, a blind date and 
falling in love at, just about, first sight.  My first reaction upon seeing the 
tall guy in front of me?  "S*^t!  THIS is what I've been waiting for all my 
life?" and proceeding to answer no more than "yes" and "no" for the entire 
evening.  We've been married for 36 years and have three fantastic kids, who 
love their mom and dad's story of how they met and tell everyone about it.  My 
best friend of all time and I have been BFF's for an unbelievable 41 years.  

For a long time I had no idea what the heck was "wrong" with me.  We kept making 
excuses for my seemingly sudden fatigue and brain fog and a host of other 
problems that were added to my "what's wrong with me?" list as the years went 
by.  Eventually, about fifteen years later, I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue 
Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) from a severe flu I got in grad school in 
1975, commonly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), a term my fellow 
sufferers and I detest.  If anything, I prefer the British name for it, Myalgic 
Encephalopathy (ME).  The British ME shows that in England, at least, as well as 
Australia, they take this illness more seriously than we Americans do.

Over the years as I've become more and more sick I've worked hard on trying new 
tricks and ways of surviving this illness.  I've been extremely lucky in that my 
hubby and kids have been so supportive of me over the years - and fierce in 
their own fights to help make my life a bit easier to survive.  

But most of all, the thing that has helped our family stay together and fight 
this beast is our gift of laughter.  And it truly IS a gift.  We've had our 
"challenging" periods and were it not for laughter I just know we would not have 
survived this DD ("dreaded disease, "darn disease," etc., you get the drift).  

I have no idea if anyone is actually reading this blog.  It often feels a bit 
like when I catch myself talking to myself - a genetic thing, I tell myself, 
because I do remember my grandmother doing so!  But I certainly hope I develop a bit 
of a following because over these past 37 years I've been able to come up with 
various coping techniques and tips that may help those with CFIDS, Fibromyalgia, 
insomnia, and, indeed, anyone who suffers from chronic illness, be they totally 
bedridden, as basically I am now, or still struggling to hold down a job, or at 
least some semblance of a social life.  

So glad if you've been able to drop in and spend a bit of your time with me.  
Please leave comments if you're at all inclined to do so and/or subscribe.  I 
will answer any questions you may pose and will enjoy hearing from just about 
anyone...it'll be nice if and when I'm no longer talking to myself.