Diagnostic Blood Test for M.E.

I'm frequently disheartened by the lack of interest the scientific field has in M.E.. Sometimes though there is a glimmer of hope. There is progress. It is slow, and it is not well publicised, but it is happening. I was very excited at the Rituximab study a few weeks ago. Now there is this!

A bloody test that will potentially identify those who have M.E., and also possibly identify those who will respond to treatment with Ampligen.

"Four genes were identified by Multivariate Regression that separated CFS patients from the normal control group.


"Chronix and Hemispherx are currently planning to [...] identify how different persons with CFS can respond to Hemispherx’s experimental drug Ampligen®.


"Ampligen® is an experimental RNA nucleic acid being developed for globally important debilitating diseases and disorders of the immune system."

Eat Properly

I asked my doctor today if I can have a blood test for diabetes. My appointment was to discuss something else though, so I haven't actually talked to him about diabetes properly yet. I have a feeling I know what the result of the whole exercise will be: I'll come back negative for diabetes, and he'll tell me I need to eat properly.

Why do I think I need to be tested for diabetes? Well, ever since the period of really bad illness last year my body has been doing some strange things. If I don't eat for a while I start feeling trembly, sort of inside, and then will start visibly shaking if I don't eat soon after that feeling starts. However, frequently, when I do eat I have that feeling afterwards if I didn't have it before. Having said that, I don't react strangely when I eat sugar.

I'm having the blood test next week, and then an appointment with my doctor to discuss it a week later. I'm going to start keeping a food diary tomorrow (if I remember), so that I can show him what I am eating and when. I should probably write in that diary when I get the shaky feelings too.

I know I don't eat properly. I don't eat as badly as people seem to assume I do though. At the moment my diet is fairly consistent:

- I started having breakfast over the last couple of weeks, which is just Frosties with skimmed milk.

- if I forget to have breakfast, I'll have a yogurt later on (Vanilla Activia)

- I have either gluten free pitta bread with tinned mackerel in it, and a packet of Walkers ready salted crisps

- or a baked potato with tuna mayonnaise and sweetcorn for lunch and dinner

- I then find I need to eat something later on, so may have a packet of square crisps, Pringles, or some form of chocolate.

Sometimes I crave something specific, so if I have the spoons to do so I go and get it. Usually what I crave is beef, so I go and get beef fried rice from the Chinese take away.

It's very easy to say to someone 'you need to eat properly', but I just don't have it in me. I'm doing my best, and suspect G will have me eating better when I move in with him. I forget to eat frequently. I'd rather forget to eat than start making a meal and forget what I'm doing though. I struggle to stand up to prepare food, let alone then standing up to cook the meal, and then do the washing up afterwards. And even if I could do all of these things sitting down, I lack the cognitive function to follow a mental map of how a meal is put together.

It's embarrassing to admit that I am 33 years old and can barely cook myself a meal. I don't know how I'm going to explain all of this to my doctor if that is what he says.