I am an English medical doctor and professor of epidemiology. I became known in media across the world as one of the first people who told their stories of long covid. I went on a roller coaster of symptoms and uncertainty for several months until I learnt some life-changing lessons that helped me recover. I want to share them.
By offloading my thoughts and emotions I learnt so much about myself and the resentment, anger, sadness and frustration that I had been holding inside my body for so long that originated from two major challenges that I had in my life.
In this episode of her very inspiring Youtube and podcast series The Puzzle of Healing, Sophie Helbig interviews May Elin Game and Torill Sorkmo about their recovery from ME/CFS and Recovery Norway.
The hardest thing for me was that I had no idea how long I would be sick. Maybe the rest of my life. I wish that Google, the information I received and what patients were generally told could to a greater extent convey that one can actually get well.
At Haukeland Hospital, I was told that I had contracted a serious neurological disease, for which there was no cure.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalopathy (CFS/ME) is a major health problem which is often seen as a rather puzzling and mysterious illness, for which there is no cure or treatment. However, having suffered from ME for 17 years, I found myself recovered to full health in just four days, at a treatment course run by Dr. Bjarte Stubhaug at the Clinic of Stress Medicine. This is my story.
Prior to getting sick, I worked for housing trust supporting men with mental health problems. It was a really interesting job and I enjoyed working with the residents.
I first became ill at the age of 13 with severe Glandular Fever. The lymph nodes on my neck were severely inflamed and I was hospitalised due to an abscess developing on one.
We all expect to get well when we first become sick, but as more and more questions are left unanswered, as weeks of illness turn into months and as months turn into years, it’s quite normal to lose hope that you will get your life back.
That’s what it was like for me.
In the first part of 2016 I was a social and active 20-year-old girl. I really enjoyed working as a personal trainer, I had a boyfriend, was frequently working out and generally happy about my life.
As parents, we are eternally grateful to the friend who made us dare believe it’s possible to recover from ME!
I got ill in 2008 and got the ME diagnosis in 2009. At the time, I was 39 years old, divorced, had two children and was working full time. I lived an active life before this. I sat on boards, was parental contact, trained at both the fitness center and with active cycling.
Life changed completely for our 10-year-old son in January 2018. He had always been a lively and happy boy who loved physical activity, a boy who loved playing football and hanging out with his friends.
Celina became ill in the autumn of 2017 at the age of 12. Until then she had been a very active young girl with lots of friends at school and at home. She was a keen footballer and active on the running track. Celina was always cheerful and happy with an infectious laugh.
I was once one of the most severely sick people in Norway diagnosed with ME in the period between 2006 and 2009. I will give a brief account of my story, how I fell ill and how I got better and also what I think about it all today because that is actually the most interesting aspect; what I have understood today.
Sometimes we do not believe things before we can watch them unfold with our own eyes. In this unique documentary we follow Thomas Overvik step by step through his full recovery from being a severely ill, bedridden ME/CFS patient in a dark-room. The documentary is made by Randi Størseth, whose daughter also has recovered from ME/CFS.
I was in my early teens when I began to lose a lot of energy. From once being an active girl, I became a lot more passive. It took me more than ten years of struggles, illness and despair, but at last, at an age of 26, I can finally say that not only am I completely well again, but I have gained from the whole experience.
I got sick in the summer of 2014. I was healthy and in great physical shape, and then suddenly I was just lying there. My body had collapsed. I couldn’t for the life of me understand what was going on.
Today Emil is a happy 18-year-old. He is in his last year of upper secondary school and is active in sports, which also includes coaching younger athletes. He has passed his driving licence and found a girlfriend, and as for what we, his parents, say and think, he cares just about as much as he ought to. This hasn’t always been the situation, however.
“The only way to make ends meet is to burn the candle at both ends!”
(Written on the 20th of October 2016, but I do not publish it until I am a long way into recovery, so that no one thinks of it as a flash in the pan.)
Hi, my name is Hanne and now in 2019 I am 27 years old. Hoping that my story will bring courage and help to others, I would like to share it here. From 2006 to 2008, I was one of the most severe cases of ME/CFS in Norway. However, after two and a half years of illness, I actually recovered completely. What happened to me?
My history starts in the fall of 2015, when I have headaches every single day. I have had extreme headache attacks in the past, but now it is constant and I need to take painkillers every day.
After many years of working long days and putting my body through a lot of physical and mental stress as a management consultant and athlete, I was diagnosed with Mononucleosis in December 2013.
Our daughter contracted ME when she was only ten years old. We vividly remember the despair we felt as parents; that her life was put on hold for one year; the worst-case scenario that she would become just another number in the queue at the national welfare center; a bedridden teenager hibernating behind blackout curtains in a dark bedroom. Luckily, we managed to find a way out of the nightmare.