Understanding my symptoms

The following is an email I wrote today to some friends.

Good morning. I'm home, unfortunately. I'm hoping that today is a "recovery" day. We shall see. Yesterday, I clicked on my first google ad in gmail. It was a link to a company that specializes in Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue. Anyway, I know that both of you "chronically healthy" people have questions. The page I'm linking is the symptom page. I hope that this will help you understand a little more.

Symptoms

I've had every symptom under the Fibromyalgia heading and most of the symptoms under the Chronic Fatigue heading. My answer is "yes" to all the questions in the "ask yourself a few questions" section.

Below is a list of my major symptoms listed with a 1-10 scale (10 worst)

Symptoms - Today - Worst this Month - Worst this Year
Fatigue - 5 - 10 - 10
Fog - 5 - 10 - 10
Headaches - 3 - 10 - 10
Muscle pain - 2 - 6 - 8
Body aches - 4 - 8 - 8
Insomnia - 3 - 8 - 10
Irritable bowel - 3 - 6 - 8
Multiple reoccurring infections - 1 - 8 - 10

You can't weigh these equally. I can deal more with a high score in aches than a high score in fatigue or headaches. Fog is the most benign sounding and yet one of the worst symptoms. Try cooking, driving or multitasking when you can't focus and forget what you are doing. I'm wondering how coherent this message really is.

I would say that overall today I'm feeling like a 4. I'm nearly functional. If it weren't for the fact that I felt like an 8 yesterday, I might have tried work today.

Treatment? No two people respond to treatment the same. I've found stories about people who have been diagnosed that lead completely normal lives. I've met people who are on long-term disability and collecting government benefits. I'm somewhere in the middle.