Sir, - Four and a half years ago my life, as I knew it, was put on hold. A twelve month period of increasing exhaustion and muscular weakness reached a climax and I collapsed on the sitting room floor at the feet of my two children. I was ready to set out for work. After extensive tests and a period of hospitalisation I was diagnosed by a consultant in St. Vincent's hospital as having "Post viral Fatigue syndrome". I was told that a period of rest, a holiday and no work would see me well in a few months. Eighteen months later, I had been in hospital three more times and still felt horrific. I could walk only very short distances, I couldn't hold a toothbrush in my hand, holding my two children in my arms was an agonising pleasure. I succumbed to travelling in a wheelchair for a period of time as otherwise I was unable to go anywhere with my family.
At this time fear for my health led me to ask my GP for a referral to another consultant. I was sent to the Blackrock Clinic where I was seen by a top consultant. More hospital, more tests and a consultation with a Psychiatrist from the Clinic left me with the knowledge that I was sane (rescuer type personality) and that I had secondary "Chronic fatigue syndrome". I was advised to rest with mild exercise and that I would recover in 18 months to two years. Nearly three years after this diagnosis and another stretch in hospital I am at a stage of recovery where the words of Dr William Holmes can no longer hurt me. I am one of the people he described as "a middle class housewife lounging around in a dressing gown."
I was 32 years old when all this started. I was a university lecturer in Trinity College Dublin with a very promising career ahead of me. I had two young children, a loving husband and family (for the record I didn't have a dressing gown. I would never have had time to wear one). As a family we had lots of plans, dreams of a larger family and a great love of life.
Dr Holmes cannot hurt me, but his comments will have hurt many others and he has made me angry. My family and I have travelled down a dark tunnel. Something happened to my body, robbing me of what should have been some of the best years of my life. I am very lucky to be emerging from this tunnel with my sanity, my marriage and my sense of humour still intact.
I know two others who have been diagnosed with CFS within the last 12 months by independent consultants. These people are very vulnerable. Neither are mad and even a stranger could see clearly that both are very ill.
To these and the many others who are suffering in silence, cared for by bewildered family and friends, take heart. Dr Holmes is not representative of the medical profession, there are many doctors who recognise CFS/ME as a complex and debilitating syndrome that they do not clearly understand. There are many chronic medical conditions not fully understood at this time. How many in the medical profession would have believed a decade ago that stomach ulcers were caused by a bacterium?
Research on the condition is being carried out in America, Australia and in Great Britain. As a scientist with nearly 20 years training I believe that a systematic study in Ireland is necessary and such a study will contribute to the global knowledge of this condition and ultimately help in finding a cure. But in the meantime people like Dr Holmes, who acknowledges that his. contact with ME patients is limited, can cause great distress and anxiety by making such statements. For those currently debilitated by the condition it is far more important to focus on the fact that there are many people who have recovered from CFS/ME and lead full and very active lives. - Yours etc.,
Rathfarnham Rd., Dublin, 14