Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (or CFS) is a nasty ailment.

It suffers (sic) from many drawbacks- 

• It has no outward symptoms.
• It is difficult to diagnose.
• People are reluctant to admit to ‘feeling tired’ all the time.
• It seems to have many and varied associated complaints.

The main symptom of CFS is a feeling of unnatural fatigue.  By unnatural, I mean a tiredness that is completely out of proportion to the exertion.  The simple act of doing some mundane every-day chore can leave the victim feeling washed out for hours, even days after. 

Because of its lack of outward symptoms, the sufferer is frequently accused of ‘laying it on’, ‘malingering’ or just plain good old fashioned ‘being neurotic’.  Why would an outwardly healthy person insist on a day in the armchair or a day in bed just because they went to the shops, if they weren’t being a hopeless hypochondriac?  In fact one of the biggest hurdles faced by a sufferer is in convincing friends, family and colleagues that the condition exists.

There is a lot of confusion between CFS and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, or ME.  The two terms are frequently confused and interchanged.  Symptoms are essentially the same, though there are differences (ME is considered to be pathological, whereas CFS is considered to be neurological).

I have had the condition now for a few years.  Whether I have CFS or ME is open to debate, but for the sake of argument, I’ll leave it at CFS for the moment.  One way or another, it is a pain.  Literally.

It is estimated that around 4% of the population have CFS, though I would imagine this figure would be a lot higher as many are reluctant to report their fatigue, and many more are just dismissed as the aforementioned neurotic.

I thought it might be of some value to cover the topic of CFS on this site.  I haven’t seen many sites examining the topic.  Because of its stigma, many people are reluctant to talk about it, so I thought a piece of open writing might be of some help?

There are times when I seriously wonder about this site.

Three posts in December, two in November?  Frankly it is going nowhere.

There are times when I seriously wonder about the other site too.  Blogging can be a bit of a chore at times, and I confess I have been tempted to call it a day.  In fact, most days, I get up with a firm resolve to give it a rest, at least for a couple of days, if not longer.

But then the bug bites.

An idea comes into my head, and I have to write it down.  It is a strange compulsion, but it must be obeyed.  Quite often, I hate myself afterwards for my lack of resolve.

I have always had a small compulsion to write things down.  I kept a ‘journal’ (diaries are or women!!) for the best part of thirty seven years.  I never missed a day, despite all the entries being very similar.  The fact that I had nothing to write on any day never stopped me – I still had to write.  I finally stopped last summer, but that was simply because the medication I was on at the time made it next to impossible.  It’s difficult jutting down what you did in a day, when you can’t remember!

I suppose the reason I keep this site going is that it is doing no harm just sitting here.  I wouldn’t save anything by shutting it down, and in fact would lose a (tiny) income if I did.  I suppose my hope is that when the recession passes that advertising will improve?  Certainly, this site’s Alexa rankings have improved enormously, despite the lack of activity.  It has gone from 1,588,769 to 394,931 in a matter of three months which should improve any advertising chances?  Why it has risen so high is anyone’s guess.

If I shut down the other site, on the other hand, I would lose considerably.  Anyway, it is a handy outlet for random thoughts and musings and frankly, is a lot of fun at the end of the day.  I think that one is there to stay.

The problem with this site is that I rarely have anything to say.  It was intended as an outlet for my more serious ponderings, but since I gave up the web design business, my serious mind seems to have retired.

Maybe I should send this site in another direction?  Maybe I should concentrate on some particular aspect of something?

I’m stumped.

Any suggestions are welcome!

I am being driven demented at the moment.

There is a web site that I used to subscribe to via RSS, though I can’t see any mention of it in my current feeds (and I have a couple of hundred of them).

The problem is that either the site has been hacked, or the owner has inadvertently uploaded a virus.  Either way, I am getting a loud alert from my anti-virus software every few minutes to say that I am attempting to connect to an infected site.

I have tried e-mailing the webmaster, but either he doesn’t read his mails very often, or I have the wrong address.  Leastwise, I have had no response; just more alerts.

There is a moral to this, of course.

If you do maintain a website, it is no harm to have a visit once or twice a day to check for infection.

An infected site is at worst very dangerous and at best, a bloody nuisance.

I have been keeping a track of advertising on Head Rambles.

Just out of interest, I plotted earnings against the ISEQ Index of Irish shares over the same period.

Quite a remarkable correlation?

The only problem is that as shares fall, advertising rises.

Shares are rising.

I just hope the correlation doesn’t hold true for too long?