Great question, and I have to talk about it.

I was rarely unwell until I got pneumonia back in 2018, leading to a golf-ball-sized pulmonary abscess that saw me briefly admitted to hospital. For about 24 hours, they thought it was something much worse, a crazy story for another time.

Luckily, it wasn’t, but after recovering from the pneumonia and abscess, combined with monthly tests and a 6-month outpatient program, I developed a range of new fatigue-based symptoms. These were eventually diagnosed by three doctors to be chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and even some eight years later, in 2026, I’m still dealing with it.

Symptoms

CFS is a doozy, and I can’t overstate the tedium of the symptoms and their constant recurrence, but if you know, you know. Nobody yet seems to quite understand it, but this symptom sequence is apparently quite common. At the time, I imagined it might last a year or two. I had no idea I’d still be dealing with this, eight years later. Yawn…

How it works is that I can feel good for months, and then slightly overdo it physically or mentally, and be wiped out by deep, whole-body fatigue and aches and pains for weeks. Any normal safety margin for exertion disappears, so a bit too much at the gym, and CFS punishes you. At their worst, flare-ups prevent me from doing much, which is incredibly frustrating.

Effects

Some may wonder: “Mike, I get tired too, what’s the problem?” As a life-long distance runner, marathon and multiple half-marathon finisher until wear and tear made me pack it in, I know more than most about effort and exhaustion. These are non-trivial efforts that few make, yet CFS symptoms are broader, deeper and unlike any other tiredness I’ve experienced, even after running 42km.

As an example, take your worst tiredness on a bad day, add a hangover, sore hips and neck, headache and grogginess. Then multiply that a few times and extend it for a month or more, on and off, for 8 years. I’ve found it especially frustrating to live with, because your first instinct is to fight it, but that only makes it worse. I still try to push through it and stay active, but I’ve learned when it really kicks in, to just let my body try to recover.

There are long periods where I feel and function normally, so I only occasionally need to alert customers about it, and that’s probably why you are here, now. It could be much worse, too. My case of CFS is mild on the spectrum, so I’m actually lucky.