Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) from Shingles?

Hi and welcome to my blog, which is about how I ended up being diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). It explaining how I believe I ended up with this condition, how it has affected me and how I am trying to deal with it at the moment.

My initial blog posts give you the history of how I believe I ended up being finally diagnosed with CFS. If you read the numbered posts that you see in the Blog Archive list to the right starting from number 1 "What is this all about?" then you will read my story below in the correct sequence.

I hope you find this blog interesting and will give some feedback if you believe you have CFS from the same cause as mine and perhaps indicate if and what treatment or strategies etc are helping you to recover or deal with your CFS.


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Another Diagnosis - Chronic Migraine!

It has been a very long while since my last post, and until recently nothing much had changed.

I had stopped taking Tramadol (a strong Opioid based painkiller) as I didn't think it was a good idea taking it long term. I then discovered that my symptoms did not worsen when I stopped taking the Tramadol, so perhaps it was not helping much anyway!

I was still finding that Gabapentin appeared to be improving things for me slightly.

As I was not only feeling tired each day, but I also had a headache every day all day, I asked my doctor if I could see a headache specialist.

I have now seen the headache specialist and he diagnosed me with Chronic Migraine! He also did not appear to think that I had Post Herpetic Neuralgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which were diagnoses I had received in the past.

You can imagine my confusion at yet another different diagnosis!

The interesting thing from the headache specialist was that he indicated that Gabapentin was the treatment he wanted me to follow. I apparently was not taking enough to get the full benefit from this drug and even at a higher dosage it would take weeks before hopefully I would see some improvements.

I had been taking 900mg of Gabapentin a day, but I was now to take 1800mg or 2400mg a day and wait for around 8 weeks to see any improvement.

I am currently taking 2400mg of Gabapentin a day, can't see much improvement in my headaches, I am not so tired (get up earlier, don't sleep very often during the day), but my Tinnitus seems worse! So some improvement but not in the expected headache area!

The headache consultant has told me to continue with the Gabapentin and if need be in a few more weeks time I could increase it to 3000mg a day!

It's all very confusing and frustrating; I just keep trying all these different things hoping that eventually I will feel better.

I will try and remember to update this blog in the near future to let you know how things are going with the new diagnosis and treatment.