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Marta Russell ap888 at lafn.org
Wed Dec 16 21:44:28 PST 1998


Cathy,

Thank you for your wonderful posts on CFS.

I just wanted to tell you that I felt so much empathy for what you went (are going) through. The social ramifications of having a chronic disability are so unnecessarily disastrous. When my unknown fibro hit me I had a four year old daughter and was married. My husband kept pressing me to have more children in the midst of all my pain and confusion about what was happening to me!! We divorced mnainly because of that. I also had a hard time getting Social Security disability here in the U.S. It took a year of fighting SSA to get it. Somehow I thought Canada had a better grasp on safety net questions, but certainly for CFS it seems not.

Since my inability to work was also real, I've had a real struggle financially trying to exist on disability benefits. Between that and the ever increasing symptoms and pain, eventually I had to let my daughter go live with her father, one of the hardest decisions I've ever made. It would have been easier if he wasn't such an ass. The medical profession by not diagnosing my fibro created a hell for me for years. Those ten plus years of looking for a diagnosis (much less any medicine for it!) took its toll. I am convinced that physicians are some of the highest paid idiots in the world.

In commiseration, Marta Russell



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