{"id":857,"date":"2018-02-18T13:49:02","date_gmt":"2018-02-18T21:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/recoveryfromcfs.org\/?page_id=857"},"modified":"2020-05-26T11:59:24","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T18:59:24","slug":"ch18","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/recoveryfromcfs.org\/ch18\/","title":{"rendered":"ch18"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_custom_heading text=”18. Recovery or Just Remission?” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left|color:%233999ad” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1514103561711{padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 30px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1517547497357{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”Table of Contents” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center|color:%233399ae” google_fonts=”font_family:Coda%20Caption%3A800|font_style:800%20bold%20regular%3A800%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1521951212538{margin-top: -40px !important;}”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner css=”.vc_custom_1517547735980{background-color: #3399ae !important;}”]
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<\/span>Part I: Getting Started<\/div>
\n1: Keys to Recovery<\/strong><\/a>
\n2: Now What Do I Do?<\/strong><\/a>
\n3: My Situation<\/strong><\/a>
\n4: Multiple Strategies<\/strong><\/a>
\n5:\u00a0Is Recovery Realistic?<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/div><\/div>\n
<\/span>Part II: Pacing<\/div>
\n6: Pacing vs Crashing<\/strong><\/a>
\n7: My Energy Envelope<\/strong><\/a>
\n8: Life in the Envelope<\/strong><\/a>
\n9: My Secret Weapon<\/strong><\/a>
\n10: CFS Scientist<\/strong><\/a>
\n11: Exercise<\/strong><\/a>
\n12: Minimizing Relapses<\/strong><\/a>
\n13: Expand the Envelope<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
<\/span>Part III: Other Challenges<\/div>
\n14: Managing Stress<\/strong><\/a>
\n15: Emotions<\/strong><\/a>
\n16: Beyond Loss<\/strong><\/a>
\n17: Finding Help<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/div><\/div>\n
<\/span>Part IV: Concluding Thoughts<\/div>
\n18: Recovery?<\/strong><\/a>
\n19: What Worked<\/strong><\/a>
\n20: What About You?<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>[\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner]

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PDF version<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>[\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]\"\"Four years after being struck by CFS, I had improved enough to consider myself recovered. I lived a normal life for a person of my age and had resumed taking long hikes, my favorite measure of recovery. (That’s me in the photo, at Kaweah pass in the Sierras.) But I found myself haunted by new questions: Will my improved health last? Have I truly recovered or am I just experiencing a remission? Will I ever be able to see my improvement as permanent?<\/p>\n

The paragraph above was written in 2004. When I re-visited this chapter in 2010, six more years had past and I could still report that I was enjoying good health. If anything, my improvement had continued. Sometimes I was able to do more than I did before CFS came into my life. Pre-CFS, I enjoyed hiking trips on which I walked 15 to 17 miles a day. In the fall of 2003, I had a three-day hiking trip on which I walked 18 miles a day. In 2009, I celebrated turning 65 by taking a hiking trip of more than 160 miles. And I repeated that trip five years later when I was 70. If I can do that, I am a very lucky person.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I experience mild symptoms of CFS at times, usually brain fog triggered by crowds and noisy places.\u00a0My response on such occasions is to leave the setting and, sometimes, to take a brief rest.\u00a0This experience suggests that I have not banished CFS entirely, even if it is dormant most of the time. A good description of me would be a recovered PWC (person with CFS), meaning that CFS is not gone but rather controlled.<\/p>\n

What about the future: will my recovery last? I think of the permanence of my recovery in terms of probability, rather than as a yes or no proposition. It is likely that the more time passes without a relapse, the more the odds tilt in favor of permanent recovery, but probability is not certainty. I expect to remain sensitive to my body and responsive to its signals for the rest of my life. And I am very grateful for my second chance to have a normal life.[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/6″][vc_column_text]\n

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Next<\/a><\/h5>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_custom_heading text=”18. Recovery or Just Remission?” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left|color:%233999ad” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1514103561711{padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 30px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1517547497357{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”Table of Contents” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center|color:%233399ae” google_fonts=”font_family:Coda%20Caption%3A800|font_style:800%20bold%20regular%3A800%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1521951212538{margin-top: -40px !important;}”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner css=”.vc_custom_1517547735980{background-color: #3399ae !important;}”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]Four years after being struck by CFS, I had improved enough to consider myself recovered. I lived a normal life for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoveryfromcfs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoveryfromcfs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoveryfromcfs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoveryfromcfs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoveryfromcfs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/recoveryfromcfs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1598,"href":"https:\/\/recoveryfromcfs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/857\/revisions\/1598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoveryfromcfs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}