What it's like to travel again after 14 years of being housebound (Telegraph article)

[Woolie]

What it's like to travel again after 14 years of being housebound:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/d...entures-after-four-years-of-being-housebound/

This article is written by someone who was diagnosed with CFS (acute onset, coincided with a series of travel vaccinations). It is very sincere, and accurately depicts the kinds of everyday problems PwMEs face.

However, I was concerned that the structure of the article implies that all there is to getting back into life with CFS is to carefully ease yourself in. The writer used what appears to be a form of travel-related exposure therapy to prepare themselves for travel:

Rediscovering travel has been a slow process for me. To prepare for my Scottish travels, for example, I started off doing local trips in Cardiff: first in a car driven by my personal assistant, and then, as I became stronger, independently on buses and trains. This was a liberating turning point and gave me the confidence to venture outside my home town on my own. I then began travelling into London, which was only a two-hour or so journey from Cardiff by train.

The implication is that you can do it if you slowly ease yourself into it.

Obviously, this person did not manage to travel just by easing themselves into it. Because if you're really ill with ME, no amount of "easing yourself it" will make these activities do-able (the "easing in" itself will set you back). They must have been fortunate enough to improve significantly.

Still I don't think an uninformed reader will come away with an accurate impression of what its like to have MECFS.

 

[Sly Saint]

"after 14 long years of rehabilitation and therapy"......she doesn't say what.

From the first break to the second
"It took me another seven years to muster the strength and financial means to go on a second trip".

"....as I became stronger," how?

"Before leaving home, I had made sure to sketch a rough schedule, which allowed for a few days of down time."

It's more what they don't say.

 

[Trish]

I thought this article was quite moving, with the gaps of many years between trips, and the need to deal with chemical sensitivities. Of course it leaves many questions unanswered, like what rehabilitation and therapy was used, and what her symptoms are, but it's a newspaper travel article, not a health article.