Premi Baby

It's Sunday afternoon on the east coast of Australia as I write this. Today I feel a little better, no sneezing and blowing but still really tired.

Visited my mum this morning, she's 88 and in a nursing home. I cared for her for 3 years from 2009 to 2012 when it became too much for me and I had no option but to move her. She's luckily in a great place close by.

Caring for her was the last straw for me and set me on the path to discover that I had CFS. However, I think, as I said yesterday, that events and circumstances throughout my life have contributed to where I'm at now.

Here's my story.

I was born in New Zealand in the 1950's 2 months premature and a few months afterwards developed asthma and eczema.

I wasn't able to breastfeed  as I kept putting my tongue on the roof of my mouth, so early on my mum bottle fed me.

My mum and dad had emigrated from Holland a few years before I was born and didn't speak English before they arrived.

When I was born they lived in a rented farm cottage many miles away from the nearest town, so communication was poor.

Asthma and eczema only occurs in 2 of my cousins on dad's side of the family, and they are younger than me. Naturally, mum and dad had no idea what I had or why, and having all other family on the other side of the planet was not helpful.

Interestingly, 4 years later my brother would be born a month premature and also develop asthma and eczema.

In hindsight, I wonder whether this could have been the 'starting point' for CFS for me. I know it can be difficult to find a cause, and I don't know if I have found it, but when I look back, as I'm doing through this blog, I'm tracing and adding up all the things that could have contributed to me having CFS.

I still have asthma and eczema, only mildly now, but I have been hospitalised for asthma when I was a child and I have also had severe eczema as a child.

I have allergies and sensitivities to various substances such as moulds, dust, cats and other animals with fine hair like rabbits, wool, perfume and strong smells, etc, etc. Dogs are cool though, lol.

In and of themselves asthma, eczema and an allergy or two CFS does not make...but I've only just begun.