h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I thought that ME was just a made up thing to cover for laziness or a more embarraasing affliction such as herpes, piles or lodged foreign objects. You learn something new every day. I think that the best cure is a good hard days graft though.

Please tell me you're joking.

My brother has suffered from ME for getting on for a year now and I've been shocked at just how much of his life has been affected.
I'll happily admit to saying that until he contracted and was diagnosed (fortunatly fairly quickly) I knew very little, but to read such a well written article which outlines the negative effects a 'hard day's graft' can have and then post a message such as yours is in very bad taste.

D

>>>I thought that ME was just a made up thing to cover for laziness or a more embarraasing affliction such as herpes, piles or lodged foreign objects. You learn something new every day. I think that the best cure is a good hard days graft though.

The reason we have entries like today's is to try and dispel ignorance like this.

Great entry, Lighthouse Girl!

I have suffered with M.E for the last 10 years, so I can assure you that it is substantially more than just a figment of the imagination that can be cured with "a good hard day's graft".
I am the kind of person who would rather collapse from exhaustion than admit defeat, but unfortunately this means that I have indeed actually collapsed on more than one occasion, all thanks to the lovely affliction that is known as Myalgic Encephalitis...



*takes deep breath *

A really nicely written article, well done

Congratulations Light! Brilliant writing.
It is rare these days that I read something as clear, interesting, corageous and informative as your entry here.
Sadly, stupidity, fear and ignorance masquerading themselves as flash cynicism - as perfectly embodied in the first post of this thread - are far more common.
But still, the bad stuff only serves to emphasise the good - and well done Light on a great piece of work.

What a great entry

And I know how much work and emotional effort you put into producing it. It has really paid off here, being an excellent introduction to the subject from a personal perspective. Also it provides a clear guide to the kind of effects that ME can produce.

Well done

Oh, I came online on the right day.

Good to see it finally edited!

I had a friend at high school who effectively 'disappeared' throughout most of our GCSEs with this living hell - it was back in the early days when the phrase 'Yuppie Flu' had just been coined (hers started with 'glandular fever') and was lucky to get diagnosed by a sympathetic consultant in those days - for those of you affected by this still I hope you'll be encouraged to hear she beat me through the university path (I was hopeless *lol*) and she left with a Masters in IT.

We've lost touch now but I'll always cheish the memories of this brave, funny, intelligent woman and helps me not to let my own problems get on top of me...

...when you consider most people haven't even strictly had 'flu they can't even remotely guess at what ME sufferers go through. Here's to you LW, wherever you are now and for everyone reading this, hang in there, you'll pull through eventually.

All I can say to you "Rt.Reverend" is that I wouldn't wish ANY disease of the nervous sytem upon anyone, not even you.
Although having visited your home page, I am sadly not surprised to discover your remarks probably are some kind of sick joke.

I doubt very much whether you would be interested in finding out what some of those who are actually affected by such conditions have to say, but possibly the others who replied would be, so I'll give you the details of a new site that we have set up (in less than a week actually -- believe it or not, we are no strangers to "hard graft"!)

By the way, our name is merely a slight movement of an apostrophe or two, not a veiled racist insult -- I'm sure you understand this sort of thing, don't you Reverend?!

"De Myelin Nation" A889194

WELL DONE LIGHTHOUSE GIRL!!!!
Terri.

I hope you know better now! There is NOTHING, I would love more than to do a hards days work. You are NOT helpful, your minimalism and flipant attitude abounds. IF you'd bothered to read more, you would have known! You would not be so willing to demean and spread your ill-will here.

You are really all a bunch of morons. Try reading the post again and take note of the use of past tense. Really. You can't get the staff these days. I find some of your comments particularly hurtful as I have been diagnosed with Parkinsons, which slightly beats your poncey bed-flu. So there!

go post in F19585?thread=197502&latest=1 'What's wrong with... H2G2 researchers?' instead of here.

sunny

I simply made a point that I, like many other people know very little about ME, its causes and effects. Many people still call it 'yuppie flu' and regard it as a mantal rather than a physical condition. I'm terribly sorry if you cannot see the point I have been making, I'll try to use little teeny weeny words in the future and remember that this is a back-slapping love in and anybody with a point other than congratulations is to post in a seedy little corner with the rest of the bad people.

This post has been removed.

Reverend;
I am extremely sorry to hear that you have Parkinsons; this must be very distressing to live with. I would certainly not belittle your condition, or anybody's; as far as I am concerned having any sort of condition which limits your capabilities in any way is a sad fact of life.
There is no competitive element to this! We don't go around adding up points according to some scale of "unpleasantness of the condition"!
An illness which is a major handicap to one individual could be of minor concern to another.

As far as us being morons is concerned, I would dispute this, but with regard to the difficulties of acquiring staff of a suitable standard, you may have a point. Perhaps you should ask your typist to check the spelling of "embarassing"?

You might well enjoy the atmosphere of the "What's wrong with..." conversation; but you should probably be aware that the normal rules of "yikes"ing apply to it.

Best wishes
Terri.

Oh no! Did I make a typo? Ooh what a heinous crime I have perpetrated, I backtrack with my face low to the ground in front of such esteemed company. Of course I realise that a failure to preview and edit my message renders the point I was making completely worthless and that bibliographic conventions reign supreme.

I also apologise for having shakey hands due to the combination of drugs I have to take for my condition, I will try my best in the future to control them to avoid upsetting you with poor spelling, punctuation or grammar. Really.

I'm sorry to see that you have failed to interpret a simple point correctly, yet again. I don't know how I can make it any clearer, capital letters? Big spaces between each sentence to signal the need for contemplation?

MANY PEOPLE THINK OF ME AS BEING A MENTAL PROBLEM AND THEREFORE NOT A PROPER ILLNESS.



THESE PEOPLE ARE WRONG.



THE ARTICLE IS GOOD.



THERE ISN'T VERY MUCH PUBLIC AWARENESS ABOUT ME.



THERE SHOULD BE MORE.




Does that make it a little easier to understand?

Apologies in advance for any spelling mistakes I may have maid [SIC].

I completely agree. I'm not trying to bait you! Yes, let's make people aware of it, you can start with me.
I know very little, other than a friend of mine's father had it & didn't like being on "levodopa"; claimed the side effects were worse than the actual illness. This was some years back, have the treatments improved since then?

Is there a good web-site I could visit to find out more?
Terri.

For info have a look at www.parkinsons.org.uk

I haven't been diagnosed for very long and have not used levodopa yet, but am using some weaker dopamine based treatments and the side effects are difficult to come to terms with to say the least.

Bring on the stem cells!

for replying so quickly!
I'm off now to have a look et thet website. In the meantime, if you want to visit De Myelin Nation, you'd be more than welcome. If you get any "stick" tell'em I sent you!
Terri.
(spot the spelling errors, I'm going to leave them in!!I could make a really non-pc joke; but I won't!!!)

There used to be a Neurosurgery about a mile up the road from me that was making leaps and bounds in the early days of stem cell therapy research in Parkinson's sufferers, unfortunately a public backlash against Frankenstein Science and an unstable NHS meant it's funding was cut and it is now a small housing estate

I think showing the operations on the Beeb's "QED" programme scared a few people