Ok, this is really awesome.

So there's a CFIDS Association of America. And I'm a fan of theirs on facebook (you can be too! it's a good way to learn about CFS) and I get their monthly e-mail newsletter. As part of their newsletter, they let you know about recent scientific studies about CFS. And there are studies that are showing that it might be possible to actually do a blood test to diagnose for CFS! This would be HUGE for CFSians, because it would not only make it much easier to diagnose, but would add a lot of credibility to CFS in the medical community. So, that's some new exciting research. It will still take awhile to get the test totally developed, but it's really awesome to know that one could be coming. You can read the article here.


Now, as much as it's challenging and annoying that some of the medical community doesn't accept CFS as a real condition, for me it might come in handy for the moment. Because I'm not a full-time student right now, I can't be on my mom's insurance, so we're trying to get an individual plan for me. It's going to be hard to get an insurance company to accept me because of my CFS, but fortunately some of them don't seem to take it as a diagnosis, and so might not be too fussed about it. We'll see how that goes.

In about an hour I have an appointment with a cardiologist to hopefully set up an appointment to get tested for neurally mediated hypotension, which I mentioned last post. Hopefully we could do the test before September 1st, because that's when my insurance goes away for the time being. I'll update after my appointment and let you guys know what's up. I'm a little nervous/excited about my appointment. I'm just really hoping that it's not going to be a challenge to get this doctor to test me; I don't know how common NMH is, so I don't know if it's something where they would want to rule out other things first or whatever. Also, when I went to my doctor to get the referral to the cardiologist, she seemed thoroughly unconcerned with my hypothesis of NMH. She said, "Well, I don't usually consider low blood pressure a problem." Well, when I can't stand up for any period of time and have to lay down half the time after I eat because of said low blood pressure, then yes, I would consider that a problem, lady! But then again, we've learned not to really expect much from her. (I know you guys don't understand what NMH is, but don't worry, I'll write a full post about it later, once I've talked to the cardiologist and know a bit more myself.)

On a thoroughly unrelated note, my boyfriend is finally home after being gone for the last three months (yay!). We're hopefully going to go to City to get our books and parking passes today (new semester starts Monday), and maybe got out to dinner with my parents tonight. Sounds like a very lovely day. : ) My head is hurting something fierce at the moment, but I'm choosing to pretend that it's not.

Hope you're having a wonderful day, and God bless!