
I learned a new card game over the weekend with a specific deck that contained resource, action and reward cards. The premise of the game was to start with a few cards and then slowly, through the gameplay, build a personal deck of select cards that you thought would be successful in winning the game. On every turn you had to make choices about what to keep, what to acquire and what to aim for. After playing three hands, of course I began to think about SEID/CFS and how I had used a similar plan to get well.
After struggling for almost two years, only getting worse, I finally decided that I needed a better plan than my daily ‘how do I feel today?’ approach with the hope that by some miracle I would walk away fully recovered. FYI – I’ve never heard of this actually working for a SEID/CFS patient. I decided that I needed a real plan. One made up of a handful of strategies that had actually improved some aspect of my illness. Over time I collected a record keeping strategy, a sleep strategy, a rest schedule strategy, a provider strategy, a nutrition strategy, a supplement strategy and a network for help strategy. Each strategy alone wasn’t going to get me well by itself but as a complementary set of strategies I was able to not only make measureable progress but eventually return to full health.
In essence, I built a personal deck of strategies which I played each day much like the new card game I had learned albeit the stakes were much higher. What strategies have worked for you and are in your personal SEID/CFS plan deck? What strategies have you discarded? Please COMMENT on this blog or Send in your thoughts and I’ll post them with your permission. You can use the Contact Form or send an email to Martha at DefeatCFS dot net. And Guest Blogs are most welcome!
Look for a weekly posting on Tuesdays. And consider being part of the conversation.
Be Well Again,
Martha