Its 4 am and I cant sleep. That usually means I will feel sick with cfs symptoms tomorrow. I think I should postpone the surgery. The dentist is not going to like this. cancelling on the day of the surgery. But if I dont sleep tonight, and i wont, tomorrow will be a bad cfs day. And i am going to feel terrible after the surgery. I will probably not sleep tomorrow either because of the pain. I want to postpone but as I said, the dentist will not appreciate me cancelling on the day of the surgery.

If I postpone what should I say to the dentist? The truth? That I am having a bad cfs day? That I didnt sleep and that will make my experience with the surgery a lot worse since I will have cfs plus the pain. I dont think he will understand. Also if I am worried because I crashed four days ago and i am not fully recovered from my relapse then he will wonder why didnt I reschedule before.

Does your dentist understand your CFS and that you have been in a crash? If you are this worried about it, you should probably call him/her and explain that you have been very ill and that you are not sleeping which will worsen your CFS symptoms. If I were you, I would also talk with your MD and get some kind of sleeping aid/med for the nights you cannot sleep as NOT sleeping is so bad for those of us w/ CFS. And you are definitely going to need to sleep after you have the surgery as well. You dentist should also provide you with some kind of pain med if this surgery is going to cause much pain following surgery and during recovery. Get the sleep business in order by calling your Doctor and reschedule the surgery for ASAP.
That's what makes the most sense to me since not sleeping magnifies your symptoms so much. I hope this all works out for you!

I slept about 2-3 hours last night. So far at 930 am I feel fine. Cfs symptoms usually worsen for me at night. I wonder if i should go ahead with the surgery today. Or postpone it. I am pretty sure my dentist is not going to like it if I postpone it.

Out of curiosity - what kind of symptoms do you have at night? I generally don't have many night symptoms so I just wondered but you don't have to answer that.

It sounds like you did the right thing postponing the surgery. ((hugs))

At night I have a horrible feeling of malaise. But it has been ok the last two nights.

I went ahead with the surgery. I just got back. I am feeling really really tired. Now i am really scared, Will I have a bad crash? This illness scares me. How do you guys deal with the feelings of fear?

I would say good for you for having the courage to get the surgery done and now just focus on taking care of yourself. The memories and worries of crashing can be part of what creates the crashing so just take it one minute at a time and do what you need to do.

Anxiety and panic attacks are known symptoms of ME/CFS. So don't blame yourself for the fear, it's caused by problems in the brain and body chemistry from the illness.

It's difficult dealing with health-care professionals...many of them are very ignorant and some are even hostile when it comes to dealing with our illness. There's no justification whatsoever for this bad behavior on their part.

I'm glad you went ahead and got the surgery out of the way. It is behind you now. You do not need to dread it or think about it any longer.
AS for your fears, everything Richie said is true about anxiety being part of CFS.
See if you can listen to some soothing music, or go on-line and find a meditation for anxiety you can listen to. Do child's pose (yoga) and breathe fully into your belly. Take nice, long slow breaths and extend the exhale. You need to try and calm your nervous system. Take a nice hot bath.
You asked how we all deal with this illness and that it scares you... This is how we do it. We take care of ourselves minute to minute and try not to think too much about the future, because it really does not help you at all. The good thing is that you have days and times in the days when you feel better, so focus on that. If you crash, as we all do, it;s a drag, but it will change. Just give yourself time and space and do NOT judge yourself. You are doing the best you can and things will shift. IF you get worse after the surgery for a bit, well, that is crappy,,, but again - it will pass. You might take a hot bath with 1 to 2 cups of Epsom salts in it. It will help pull toxins from your body from the dental medications - and it feels good!
Good luck sweetie. You are OK. Hang in there and write any time.
HUGS

Thanks for your suggestions and support. This is a great group. It helps a lot to have people to talk to who understand cfs and treats one with love and respect. Thanks to everyone. The night I did not sleep caused me to crash. I dont know if this will last a day or a week or what. All I know is I am tired of almost recovering and then crashing again. I said I was on a 5 month relapse but in reality it has been a series of recoveries and crashes. I hope i can stop this cycle and recover fully this time.

Yesterday I not only had dental surgery done. I also went to my shrink to help me with the problems I am having with my gf and at work. After a night of not sleeping I feel I did too much. I am really scared that this crash will last a long time. As I said, I have been on a cycle of recovering and crashing for 5 months and is very frustrating to crash again. I am getting depressed. I am trying to have more positive attitude but after 5 months of constant crashing it is very hard.

I K H Y F (or I know how you feel). It is very, very hard to crash and be down for a long time, then begin to come out of it and then crash again. Not having any idea how long we will be lying down is part of the stress of this illness. It is so difficult to plan our lives or have a sense of when we will feel better. It's not like having a cold and knowing you'll be better in several days or week. This is where all the things we do to cope come into play for dealing with this crappy illness and all it's complications. I think it might be good if you could learn more stress management skills to help with your anxiety (which has already been stated is a symptom of CFS or can be). There are some classes you can take on line. Actually if you scroll down the discussion list one of the folks here at DS was planning to take one and was wondering if anyone else wanted to do it. Check it out. Your 'shrink' might or should be able to help you with stress management or turn you on to some places in the area who offer classes or help. (He/she should also be able to address your anxiety.) There are a gazillion books written on the subject! Plus a ton of suggestions on the net. Just google stress management. I know this does not fix your problem with the CFS. Unfortunately! The only thing we can do is figure out for ourselves how to cope with the darn circumstances. Sometimes, we just have to surrender to it, to just accept the fact that this IS WHAT IT IS and try to stop railing against it. Believe it or not, this does help because you stop fighting with something you cannot control. Fighting against CFS is like fighting with the wind. And sometimes, we just need to sit down and have a good cry about it so that we get to release all the pent up emotions. It's not good to let it all build up and sit there. Just let it out. And then you can move on to acceptance and surrender. WE ALL struggle with this. It is hard, but somehow, we are all doing it and living with it. The one thing I tell myself when i get freaked out is "Well, it sucks, but it is not going to kill me. I just have to get through it" And then I try to distract myself with things that interest me. So, there you go, a few more suggestions. I sure hope it helps you a bit. So hard. Be nice to yourself. You did not ask for this!
Big Hugs

I have to write an article for publication due in two weeks plus I have to resolve a very stressful situation with my boss in these same two weeks. I had two good days but today I am feeling exhausted. I dont know how I am going to do all this in my current condition.