Thank you, Richie - excellent article!!

Yes, it IS an excellent article. I think I would like to see "Voices from the Shadows" I watched the trailor!

Yes thanks Richie..I think I too would like that DVD...very good article

Thank you for sharing. That made my day. :D

bump

Too bad people have to pay for the videos...I found some trailers for Voices on You Tube.

From what I understand the UK is really tough on ME/CFS patients, only allowing graded exercise for treatment.

But at least their doctors don't say what mine do...that they know nothing about CFS and don't intend to learn.

hollie

It can be tough to have ME/CFS in the UK, Hollie. But my friends in the UK have told me about the help they do get from the system.

We agreed it's not good, but it's definitely better than the way I've been treated by doctors here in Florida. Graded exercise is not the only way they go over there...I guess it depends on what facility you approach about your illness.

If you have the cash, I've heard that the private clinics in the UK that treat ME/CFS are better than the national health system.

RichieD

You are right, if you have money here in the UK there are many good places that can offer help. Unfortunately the way the system has been set up most folks don't put aside money for private medical treatments. As we continuously put money aside all our lives into the NHS we just presume that if we are to become ill any treatment available will be offered through it. It is such a blow to come down with a mysterious illness to then find that treatments that could help are not offered on the NHS.

All in all though I have to say that I have found that I have always been believed and was diagnosed fairly quickly compared to the stories I hear from folks in the US. My doctor really tries his hardest to help and not once has suggested it is all in my mind or that is less serious than it is. I have been offered GET and CBT which I tried but at my pace and within my own limits.

Wouldn't it be nice no matter where we are in the world to be offered whatever treatment was available without having to worry about the cost?

Much Peace to all
Jen

Yes that would be nice Jen:)
Good article Richie :)

I just read recently, Jen, that countries all over the world are moving toward universal health care...even when their economies are still being strained by the aftermath of the Great Recession.

People in government are coming to the realization that ignoring the health care needs of citizens is a dangerous path for a democracy. Leaving the elderly and chronically ill to suffer needlessly, or leaving mothers of dependent children to watch their kids go hungry day after day...that's a scenario that leads into social and political unrest and severely damaged productivity. It's a highway to nowhere.

I live in one of the wealthiest places in the US, yet people go without health care routinely here because they can't afford it. It's what I have to do for most things, I only get treatment for my skin cancer now.

They find elderly and poor people in the woods here now and then. They just go off by themselves to die, and people stumble across human remains regularly.

It's all right, they're just old men mostly. We're too old to work, so we're not worth anything anymore.

My last post was too negative to suit me.

Here's a quote to lift you up from the dismal picture I painted...

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. - John Wooden

My present rheumy has me on a graded exercise plan. For some time now I have felt that exercise is detrimental to my health. How do I dare show him the article? Won't he feel it is a slap in the face? My doctor is very bossy (but otherwise good) and actually yelled at me during my last visit for not attaining his exercise regime.

I don't understand how doctors get away with ordering people around. I don't follow orders from somebody I hire to perform a service for me. If a doctor wants to pay me a salary, he or she can order me around all day.

Failing that, I expect to be treated with respect. I'm the one who's paying him to do something, not the other way around.

I once had a doctor call me at home and start yelling at me because I got a second opinion without his permission. I never made an appointment with him again, you can be sure of that.