Health history

I became ill in spring 2012 with what was likely a nondescript viral illness, during a period of heightened stress. I was prescribed the antibiotic phenoxymethylpenicillin, and I feel this may have played a role in my developing a long-term illness.

For several years I lived with three core symptoms: mild fatigue, mild muscle pain and tenderness, and unilateral tinnitus that started about a month after I first became ill (the tinnitus has persisted and is associated with hearing loss in my left ear). Throughout this period, I was able to work full time (though often relying on the relative flexibility of academia) and I could still exercise regularly.

My symptoms started to increase in severity in late 2016, and I wasn’t able to exercise or remain in work. My world started to become much smaller. It was around this time that my symptoms became consistent with ME/CFS. In autumn 2017 I started a new position after a period of 8 months out of work, but it was too much; within months I was down to part-time hours and really struggling. I finished the short-term contract working mostly from home, unable to spend more than around 10 hours a week in front of a computer due to extreme cognitive fatigue, vision issues, and a feeling like my brain just wasn’t able to keep up and process information correctly. I have been unable to work at all since 2020.

In summer 2023 I developed symptoms consistent with POTS/dysautonomia. Previous to this, I had not suffered too much with any sort of orthostatic intolerance. Becuase of this, I became almost totally housebound and largely bedbound during crashes / prolonged PEM.