Why are you unwell?

If you’re here, it’s probably a CFS flare.

UPDATE: 2026 has been a tough year, with a 3-month flare earlier in the year and now another burst at the end of August, just when I was back at the gym and getting lots done.

I was rarely unwell until I got pneumonia back in 2018, leading to a golf-ball-sized pulmonary abscess (infection) that saw me briefly admitted to hospital. For about 24 hours, they thought it was something much worse, a crazy story in itself. Thankfully, it wasn’t, but this put me on a 6-month outpatient program, with monthly X-rays and lung function check-ups.

Some time later, I developed a range of fatigue-based symptoms. These were eventually diagnosed by three doctors as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Is it CFS? There are no definitive tests for it, so it’s hard to know, but it is diagnosed by excluding other illnesses. Eight years later, in 2026, I’m still dealing with it, so it’s a significant problem for me.

Symptoms

ME/CFS is a doozy, with a range of tedious, recurring symptoms. From Wikipedia:

The hallmark feature of ME/CFS is a worsening of symptoms after exertion. People wake up exhausted and stiff rather than restored after a night’s sleep.

Nobody quite understands what causes it, though it commonly appears after infections like pneumonia. There are conflicting opinions about whether it is a disease, a syndrome, or even whether sufferers in fact have one of several other diseases with similar symptoms. Whatever it is, though, as all sufferers know, it’s very real and incredibly frustrating to live with.

This raises another point about arthritis: I’ve got arthritis from years of running and age, and those symptoms mix with those of ME/CFS.

Effects

I can feel good for months, and then just slightly overdo it and be wiped out by whole-body fatigue, aches and pains for months. A bit too much at the gym or in the garden, and that can trigger it. At their worst, flare-ups prevent me from doing much, which is incredibly frustrating for someone active and highly motivated, who can get so much done when 100%.

You may wonder: “Mike, I get tired too; what’s the problem?” As a long-distance runner for my entire life until arthritis stopped me, a marathon and multiple half-marathon runner, and a science teacher, I know something about effort and exhaustion. CFS symptoms are unlike any normal or even extreme ‘tiredness’ I’ve experienced.

Take your worst tiredness, add a hangover, sore hips and neck, headache, grogginess, multiply that a few times and then experience it for a month or more at a time, and then live with that for 8 years and counting.

Most try to fight CFS, at least initially, but one quickly learns that fighting CFS is futile and only makes a flare-up worse and last longer. I try to push through, but I’ve learned that when it really kicks in, to let my body try to recover. This year (2026) has been particularly challenging, with two flare-ups so far that have cost me many thousands in lost earnings. More than anything else, they are just incredibly frustrating.