Easy Does It For Nathalie: A Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Improvement Story

Summary

Tried Low Dose Naltrexone (immediate but partial relief from stiffness), a six-week high-dose course of Famvir that gave no benefit, and three years on Valcyte (valganciclovir), which brought her "back to life" out of a bedridden state within weeks but left her only at a fluctuating 5-30% of normal functioning; she then added a structured graded-pacing program (Toby Morrison's CFS Health), keeping her heart rate under an anaerobic threshold of 106bpm and building activity from 2-second wall push-ups up to 300-step walks and from 5-second to 2-minute bike rides over 10 weeks, alongside sleep-hygiene, meditation and nutrition changes. She had been ill for about eight years (2009-2017), including nine bedridden months in 2011-2012 with wheelchair use and episodes where she couldn't move. Nine months into the pacing program she could read continuously, attend movies and parades without crashing, and leave the house 3-5 times a week, and had gone seven months without being bedridden as of the October 2017 update, calling her post-exertional malaise "much more manageable."

What they credit

Credits CBT & mindset, Low-dose naltrexone, Antivirals, Pacing, Trauma & somatic work, Famvir / famciclovir (Pridgen), Low-dose naltrexone, Meditation, yoga, breathwork, Pacing and the energy envelope, Valcyte / valganciclovir.

Symptoms mentioned

Symptoms: Post-exertional malaise.