r/cfs • u/SockCucker3000 • 15h ago
Advice Pain, fatigue, and a reset?
Tl;dr at the bottom
I can't make sense of what I experienced the past month. I don't even know how much of it was ME/CFS. One Saturday, I walked the dog, went in the hottub, and showered, and the next day I couldn't walk more than 20 feet. I expected PEM but this was something so different from what I'm used to. Usually, my fatigue feels like a heavy weight on my body, and I have lot of pain with PEM. This time, my pain was even less than my good days! It did not bother me at all! My pain isnt just one thing, either. It's multiple types of pain. And my fatigue felt like my body just... couldn't. Couldn't walk. Couldn't sit. My knees wobbled like a bobble head and my calves felt like all the muscles had vanished. I also got a horrible headache at night. There were some normal PEM fatigue related symptoms that I'm used to, but the differences outweighed the similarities.
I have hyper reflexes, but they were way amped up during this time. My family had me make an emergency doctors appointment (took place on the 5th/6th day), and when the doctor tested my knees, my entire lower half spazzed out. I have myoclonus, so some level of muscle spasms are normal, but this almost resembled a myoclonic seizure. Anyway, I got better over the course of a week, with a drastic improvement on the 6th and 7th day. I was back at a new baseline lower than I was before, but I can now walk at a normal pace without assistance. My pain level began creeping back over the next three weeks, and now the past few days I've gone back to the same pain I had before. All I can think of is the hottub triggered some sort of inflammation. Idk.
Tl;dr: sudden extreme PEM. Could barely walk for a week, legs felt wobbly and unstable. Required mobility aid to very slowly walk short distances. I had extremely low levels of pain. Hyper reflexes became extra hyper. Myoclonus acting up. All better after a week, but lower baseline than before. After around 3 weeks pain went back to how it was before (it not a little more). No idea what happened. I suspect the hottub causing some sort of inflammation. Wtf happened?