How About Some Good News for A Change?

I don't know about you, but it's been another rough week around here.  Craig was home sick two days, and Jamie has been severely crashed all week and missed all five days of school.  I'm doing OK, but we're all feeling bad for Jamie.

So, when I heard some wonderful news yesterday, I wanted to share it with you.  One of our own has recovered!!

Many of you may remember Lori, the mom who blogged over at Living Chronically about her daughter's journey with ME/CFS and celiac disease.  Well, that journey is over now!  Jessica is well - completely and truly well - and is busy attending college and living the life of a happy, healthy young woman.  She has no symptoms, she can do anything she wants without crashing, and she no longer takes any medications at all. 

I talked to Lori about what helped and how she got to this point.  As is usually the case, it's impossible to tell and was probably a combination of things, including a measure of good luck.  Some of the treatments Jessica used that seemed to help with symptoms included:

• Treating sleep dysfunction and headaches with nortriptyline,
• Treating pain with Lyrica,
• Treating Orthostatic Intolerance with Florinef (Jessie was one of those kids who used to think it was normal to feel dizzy and black out all the time!),
• Lots of vitamins and supplements, based on bloodwork, including D3, B vitamins, multi-vitamin, fish oil, and CoQ10.

In addition - and perhaps most importantly - Jessica has celiac disease and is now on a gluten-free diet.  They suspected it for years and had tried gluten-free before, but she was officially tested and diagnosed in 2008 and stayed on a strict gluten-free diet after that.  Her symptoms didn't magically disappear as soon as she returned to gluten-free, but she has gradually improved over the years to where she is now.

They visited the Hunter-Hopkins Center in Charlotte, NC, and many of the treatments listed above came out of that.  Jessica was officially diagnosed with ME/CFS in 2005, so it's been a long and difficult process.  At one point, she had to quit attending school and finish high school online.

So, recovery IS possible and it DOES happen.  Dr. Bell's studies on kids and teens show that people who get ME/CFS as kids are more likely than those of us who got sick as adults to eventually recover, though I've posted stories here before of adults who have recovered as well.  I hope that hearing about Jessica's recovery inspires you and brings a smile to your face - not only in happiness for her but also in hope for all of us.