Linda Milne is a fun loving sixty-three year
old, living her life to the fullest extent that is possible. She had
everything going for herself and nothing was going to hold her down.
Linda had a management consultancy for small businesses, teaching
others how to manage their business life.
In addition, Linda held down a full-time management position
she enjoyed. She spent
much of her time working and often put in eighteen hour days
throughout the week. On the weekend, she loved to go out with her
friends and have a good time.
Linda's Over Night Change
At the time of her onset with CFS, she was
living in Los Angeles and she loved
it there. It was such a beautiful place and there was such a
diversity of people to meet. It was at a New Year's Eve party where
she started to feel flu like symptoms. After having what she thought
was the flu, she then suffered from Cytomeglovirus (CMV), which was
then followed by a case of Epstein bar. She never bounced back from
these viral infections and from then on her life has never been the
same. She is so
grateful for the dear friends who cared for her when she could not.
She was then diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome, combined with Fibromyalgia and Chemical Sensitivity. The
Chemical Sensitivity makes it difficult for her be around strong
odors, such as perfume or gasoline and exhaust fumes from a lawn
mower.
Linda moved from Los
Angeles
to Chicago,
a city where she had formerly lived.
There she found another support system of dear people and
medical care. “Chicago
is such a wonderful and exciting city – even when you are ill.”
Linda had been suffering with CFS for a few
years, when she decided to move back to
Utah
to help with a family crisis.
She was not only taking care of herself, but she was also now
a caregiver for her father who was going through some difficult
times and was experiencing the beginning stages of Alzheimer's
disease.
Impact
Linda found herself reshaping her life. She now
has to spend eleven to thirteen hours in bed everyday.
She had to prioritize her activities so that she wouldn't get
behind on the responsibilities we all have in life.
She has also suffered cognitively, and now has trouble
remembering simple things and has lost some of her vocabulary, which
impacts her writing that she loves to do. Her self worth also took a
hard hit as well as her family life. She sometimes feels as though
some family members were not as supportive as they could have been
and that they were not respectful of her situation. Luckily though,
she also has wonderful friends here in Salt Lake
who have been there for her through thick and thin. They have been
willing and excited to learn as much as they can about CFS, so they
can help her out in any way that she needs. She feels that having
CFS has helped her become a kinder, more generous and more
compassionate person.
Although it sounds like CFS has impacted her
life, for the most part negatively, Linda is always looking on the
bright side of things. She says that having CFS has made her a
better person. She now lives in the moment and she notices little
things that in the last phase of her life, she wouldn't have
necessarily noticed. She is more appreciative of everything she has
and everything that everyone has done for her. CFS has helped her
turn her attention and energy on her inner world, which helps her
serve others and make realistic contributions to the needs of
others. She is now a kinder, more generous, and more compassionate
person.
Recommendations for Others with CFS
>From her own experience, Linda recommends
being responsible with your medications, eating well, keeping your
electrolytes up, and getting enough horizontal time. She feels that
staying off her feet is important to keeping her strength and
energy. When she having what she calls a "melt down" and all you can
think of is everything you can't do, she says the best thing to do
is communicate with others and not isolate yourself from the rest of
the world.
She also recommends embracing your present life
and getting connected with it. She says: make this phase of your
life as rich as the pre-illness phase. She advises others to be
realistic about what you can do yourself, take the help that is
offered to you by others, and don't let things pile up. If you need
to, have someone remind you to pay your bills, or hire someone to
come in and clean your house.
Linda's Hope for her Future
Linda has now had CFS for ten years and after
reshaping her life she still has a lot to accomplish. She loves to
write and hopes to one day have her work published. She looks
forward to the time when she can find a way to travel the parts of
the world that she has not yet seen. Linda says, she also wants to
live a full life, for at least another twenty five years and just
have a good time living.
Linda's Hopes for the Future of CFS
In the future, she hopes that friends and
family around those who are suffering with CFS and Fibromyalgia will
respect them and try to understand what they are going through. She
wants to increase the knowledge among doctors, families, neighbors,
and friends of those who are suffering with these diseases. She
quotes from a Salt Lake Tribune article that says that people need
to realize that sufferers of CFS are, "as impaired as people with
multiple sclerosis or AIDS or who are undergoing chemotherapy for
cancer." In the article William Revees, who works with the Center
for Disease Control, goes on to say that CFS sufferers "don't die,
but they are severely debilitated." (
Salt
Lake Tribune, 4-21-06
:Contentious Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has 'Biological Basis';
www.sltrib.com ). Linda wants to
see more scientific studies and research done about the illnesses
and by pharmaceutical labs.
From this research, she hopes that the triggers that cause
this disease will be found.
Linda would love to see an integrated health
care facility, where people who suffer with CFS and other diseases
could get medical treatment in addition to alternative medicine,
such as massage therapy and acupuncture. With this facility Linda
would want medical professionals to communicate with the patients
about their condition, as well as communicating with the other
medical professionals about the patient. This would make one
convenient stop for the patient, instead of driving all across the
valley explaining their situation from one doctor to the next.
Linda would like to see support groups for
younger people suffering with these diseases. She wants younger
people to know that there is hope out there and with these support
groups they will be able to talk with each other, and encourage one
another not to give up. She has a desire for young people with CFS,
or Fibromyalgia to be optimistic about the situation they are in;
not to feel like they are victims of the disease. Linda also hopes
that insurance companies will see this as the real disease that it
is and offer disability coverage for those suffering financial
impact from having to give up their livelihood.
