Why are you unwell?

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

Genesis

This all started when 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, and told me so- a story so crazy that I’ll save it for another time.

Thankfully, it was just an abscess, but that’s a serious thing in itself, and to be sure it wasn’t the other thing they first told me it was, put me on a 6-month outpatient program, with monthly X-rays and lung function check-ups until giving me the all clear.

Some time after getting over the pneumonia, I developed a range of strange fatigue-based symptoms that really impacted me and my everyday life. This was eventually diagnosed by three doctors as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

Symptoms

Do I actually have 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, and I believe it is CFS based on my research.

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.

No one knows what causes it, though it often appears after pneumonia. There are conflicting opinions about whether CFS is a disease, a syndrome, or whether sufferers 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.

I can feel good for months, and then overdo it and be wiped out by whole-body fatigue, aches and pains. 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 anything much, which is truly miserable and incredibly frustrating for someone intrinsically active and highly motivated.

Arthritis

This raises another point: I’ve got arthritis from age, genetics, and a life spent running. Those symptoms mix with the aches and pains associated with, or exacerbated by, ME/CFS.

Vs Tiredness

You may wonder: “Mike, I get tired too; what’s the problem?” As a long-distance runner from Little Athletics until arthritis stopped me at about 50, and as a science teacher, I know something about effort and exhaustion. I can confirm that CFS symptoms are unlike any normal or even extreme ‘tiredness’.

I’d describe it as follows: Take your worst tiredness, add a hangover and a really sore body, headache, grogginess, and multiply that a few times. Then, deal with that feeling for the whole day, day after day for sometimes months at a time, for 8 years and counting.

Most try to fight CFS, but one quickly learns that fighting CFS is futile, as it only makes a flare-up worse and last longer. I’m stubborn, but I’ve learned 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.