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The definition of PEM which most closely mirrors my own experience came from Dr. Komaroff when he used it to distinguish ME/CFS from depression: The aspect that critically matches my experience is that PEM peaks the next day, not immediately following exertion. This seemed like it was reflected...

The whole of the epidermis is made up of cells that are constantly making their way to the surface of the skin, so the spots may just be along for the ride. It takes about 7 weeks for the cells to move from the bottom to the top layer (it might take longer on the hands because there is an...

Maybe this is a dumb question, but wouldn't protozoans, like trypanosomes, be fairly obvious in the blood stream? Perhaps they can hide out somewhere, but, from what I've seen, diagnosis is confirmed by blood test. Or is the the idea be that the immune system may be continuing to react to a past...

The closest I ever got to Africa was the "Jungle Cruise" ride at Disneyland... and I still got this disease.

FWIW, I have similar red/brown dots (see below) that reach from my ankles to about midway up my calves. The "freckling" is actually staining of the skin left over from previous dots. This started when I was about 40 and has nothing to do with sun exposure. It might be a benign form of...

As a teenager, probably up to about age 20, I had the blisters seen in @strategist's photo (though mostly larger and fewer in number). It was generally between the fingers, but sometimes it was on the palms (both hands) as well (where it was flatter and deeper under the skin). I assume this is...

You should be more cautious when preparing your tintypes.

"The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end." - Henry L. Ellsworth, U.S. Commissioner of Patents, Annual Report, 1843 [ But he seems to have been just joking about, and was perhaps...

It could be anything that is corrosive, like cleaning chemicals. If so, I'd think it would have to be a fine powder or mist to cause little dots like that. I'm virtually certain I've seen this on my own hands, but, dang it, I can't recall what caused it. :banghead: :)

I think you're right, and that "prodrome" does not mean that the disease process hasn't started, just that it doesn't meet the official diagnosis yet. If that's right, then, by most current definitions, the "prodrome" of ME/CFS technically lasts at least six months - since that's how long you...

Following onset, I developed mild anemia with low RBC's, high MCH and normal hemoglobin. I think this is called "macrocytic anemia," but I could be wrong. The physician attributed it to loss of appetite, but I never told him I had lost my appetite... because, at that point, I hadn't. Actually...

Have you been handling any materials that might be considered corrosive? This webpage discusses something that looks very similar (see image below) and it turned out to be from handling a jar containing corrosive silver nitrate. Another possible source of silver nitrate might be from the tips...

As far as prodrome goes, probably the weirdest thing I had in the months before onset was an odd intolerance to cold. On several occasions, I would climb into a cold car around 10 PM to drive home and I would just be swept by waves of a kind of shivering that I had never experienced before. It...

This 2018 paper found that respiratory viruses can alter the gut microbiome (in mice). Assuming that something similar can happen in humans, perhaps the non-specific "viral triggers" apparent in many ME cases are actually only important in that the immune response to them disrupts the gut...

Balance problems have long been recognized in ME. It's certainly not universal, but nor does it seem to be all that uncommon. Connecting the problem to orthostatic intolerance seems to have been a more recent development, and it clearly contributes to many cases. On the other hand, there also...

FWIW, in the first few years of the illness, I had a couple of liver function test results that seemed to concern the doctors who ordered them. Each time, the tests were normal on retesting. Maybe that's par for the course with liver functions tests, or maybe it's a more frequent occurrence in...

Perhaps they have already thought of this, but I wonder if their biobank/patient registry has a mechanism to retrieve samples from patients who are in remission. While the system is obviously set up to acquire samples from patients who are ill, they might want to proactively try to acquire and...

The low BMI connection to CFS reminds me that I was very thin as a child, even though my height was normal. My older brother was never anywhere near as thin as I was. The pediatrician assured my mother than I would put on weight eventually, and I did do so during my teenage years. I was of an...

I was in my early 20's and had a lot of stamina at the time of onset. I would ride my bike for an hour or two several times a week for exercise and would come home with my shirt soaked in sweat. I had to cut that back when I got a job that routinely required 12+ hour days. I did have some kind...

The same thought crossed my mind, but I'm not so sure that it is easy to find a group of bacterial and metabolite differences in a large proportion of the ME/CFS patient and in very few controls. I assume you have to find the entire group of differences in (most) ME/CFS patients and the entire...