CFS Tuesday*

*Travels with Swatchy™ is not just about my knitted dolls and where they go. In fact, Noricum suggested this project as a way for me to go symbolically out into the world where I cannot go physically. Life with CFS is not as funny as the great pictures and stories on this blog, but should be discussed nonetheless.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. What do you think of when you hear the name? Perhaps you associate it with denigrating terms like "yuppie flu." If you have no personal experience with this illness, you might think it means feeling tired all the time and that patients can be cured with sufficient rest.

Rest? If I had a dollar for every hour I have rested in the last 12+years . . .

Let me explain what "rest" means to a person with CFS. "Rest" is what you do when you are too weak to lift your head. "Rest" is what you do when you cannot bear the faintest sound or lightest touch. "Rest" is what you do when your body is wracked with pain. "Rest" is what you do until you are blue in the face. "Rest" is what you do instead of living your old life, instead of going out into the world. "Rest" is the euphemism for I-cannot-do-so-I-must-learn-to-just-be.

If "rest" was a cure, I wouldn't be writing this to you.