Luckily I am stubborn, and so I decided to disprove the idea that you just have to live with this diagnosis
- Condition
- ME/CFS
- At worst
- Severe (mostly bedbound)
- Ill for
- 2 years
- Published
- Jan 2019
Summary
Benedicte Viggen Fintland attended Vikersund Kurbad rehabilitation centre and then, from November 2015, Dr Bjarte Stubhaug's stress-management programme at what became Klinikk for Stressmedisin in Fitjar, after being rejected by Catosenteret for being too old. She had been diagnosed with ME/CFS after a bout of flu in January 2014, and at her worst struggled to walk 50 metres and lived with constant pain, poor sleep and exhaustion. Dr Stubhaug warned her to expect setbacks, and she reports these "sidesteps" did occur but grew less frequent as she improved, until she felt able to set a goal of completing a 90-plus-km cycling race. She now studies nursing, exercises regularly and describes her life as entirely normal. The story frames occasional setbacks during recovery as expected rather than as a later relapse, and gives no indication of relapse since.
Read it in their words
recoverynorway.org — a recovery advocacy site.