By Gail Kansky

Summer 2022

I got attacked by ME/CFS as a young child. My daughter was a colicky mess when she was a very young child but she got worse as she entered her teens. I brought her to every doctor possible until her pediatrician set her up with an appointment with the Director of Medicine from Harvard University. He saw her for ten minutes and then came out to see me in a waiting room He told me he knew what she had and it was “Myalgic Encephomyalitis.” I said, “My what?” About 15 years later, I, too, was diagnosed.

ME/CFS was not in any book I could find in the local library. It didn't seem to be mentioned anywhere. And there didn't seem to be many physicians that knew about it. Certainly, there were a few that I met, such as the late Dr. Jay A. Goldstein, MD. It was recently mentioned in articles in my local newspaper when COVID-19 emerged, as both illnesses seemed to have similar, if not identical symptoms. It quickly found mentions in magazines as different as Time and Cosmopolitan. In June of this year, the National Academies wrote, “At the request of the U.S. Congress, the National Academies will form a committee of experts to help define the health and safety issues that need to be guided by an improved understanding of low dose and low dose rate radiation health effects and recommend a long-term strategic and prioritized research to address scientific research goals.” We may also find out exactly how some politically famous people managed to recover after their ME diagnosis decades ago! The recent pandemic may turn out to be one of the best things to witness for the many millions who continue to suffer today. And the NCF may finally be able to cease existing!

Meanwhile, as summer settles in, I hope all ME/CFIDS patients will do themselves a favor and stay out of the sunshine as UVR (ultra violet radiation) is dangerous to us all.