Katie, a UK patient, recounts being diagnosed with ME/CFS in March 2022 after months of severe stress and progressive fatigue with multisystem symptoms (digestive issues, difficulty swallowing, brain fog, noise sensitivity, short-term memory loss, blurry vision, night sweats, sore throat/lymph nodes). She reports gradual but substantial recovery after starting the Gupta Program about 2.5 years ago: symptoms largely disappeared or reduced, she considers herself ~90% recovered, returned to work three months after beginning the program (initially 16 hours/week, now about double), resumed regular 45-minute country walks and is rebuilding physical fitness.
Questions this video answers
March 2022.
About 2.5 years ago.
Approximately 90% recovered.
16 hours per week.
About double (approximately 32 hours per week).
Chapters
Hello, my name is Katie, I'm from the UK and I was diagnosed with ME CFS in March 2022. In the lead up to the diagnosis, I had experienced a period of immense, immense stress over many months. I had these periods of, yeah, sort of episodes where I would get this fatigue and it, and it started off where I would take a little bit longer to recover from something that, that would normally not, not impact me. And I had these episodes where it would be like, it would take me a couple of days longer, it would take me a week longer and then it would be like a, I would do a couple of hours gardening and it would knock me flat for a couple. Same with like a Pilates class or going on a walk. It was like my physical energy was just slowly draining and it was getting worse. But I also developed these other symptoms over that time. I had digestive issues and sometimes it would be difficult to swallow. I had brain fog and I couldn't, I couldn't read or read as much as I, as I used to. I had sort of noise sensitivity. My short term memory was impacted. I had blurry vision. Sometimes I'd have night sweats. I would, occasionally I would have like sore throat and sort of swollen lymph nodes and no other sort of viral symptoms. It was very lonely. It was scary and overwhelming and I couldn't work when it was at its worst. I could do a couple of hours volunteering in the week, but I couldn't. I found it really difficult to keep up with friends. I couldn't be active in the way that I used to. I really missed exercise, but the symptoms got worse. I was never bed bound, but it felt like someone had just pulled the plug out of my back. So since starting the program about two and a half years ago, my symptoms have either totally disappeared or significantly reduced. And I now don't think of myself as having me. I'm probably about 90%, 90% recovered and that was gradual. There are a lot of dips along the way. But when I think back to two years ago, I started work about three months after starting the Gupta program. And at that point I could only. I was working 16 hours a week and that was the limit of what I could do through the week. Now I work about double that. Things like a walk, there is this country walk. And in the early part of my recovery, on my day off I would walk a small part of it and that would be it for that day. Whereas now I can do the full walk, which is about 45 minutes, can do that before work. I can do that during lunch, and I can do it after work. And I feel good. I feel like there's energy in my body again and strength, and that's still returning. You know, I'm focusing on my physical fitness now, and that will. I'm confident that that will continue to improve. And I feel myself getting stronger. I feel like things are possible.
