Post-Viral Fatigue

[Jux]

DD has this. She had a not very bad virus a couple of weeks before Xmas. We sent her back to school after her fever had gone down, and her cough was a bit better. She was exhausted. She continued to be exhausted for another week, during which we took her to the doc, who diagnosed Post Viral Fatigue, and told us not to send her back to school for the rest of the week.

We sent her back the next week as it was the last week of term, and shouldn't have been too taxing. She was still ker-nackered after school and missed all her after school stuff (all of which she loves, and begs to go to even when she's ill - but not this time).

Then it was Christmas. We had a quiet one as dd was still too tired to anything. She went back to school and did the first week, but couldn't face any of her after school stuff again, was falling asleep almost as soon as she sat down, miserably tired in the mornings. She went to school on Monday this week and hasn't been back since.

We took her to the doc again. He said it's still PVF, uncommon for it to last this long but it does happen, he said. We have organised a gradual return to school, starting with an hour tomorrow, and it'll be mornings only for at least a week, possibly more.

She is white. She has great dark circles round her eyes. She'll be OK for an hour or so, and then exhausted again.

Has anyone come across this? Suffered from it themselves? Any ideas as to how I can 'build her up' again - her diet is excellent and we have added live yoghurt every day, instead of occasionally. Apart from that, I can't think of anything do do.

Please help. Thank you.

Did she have blood tests before doctor gave this diagnosis?

No, she didn't have blood tests; the doctor has said that we should bring her back in a couple of weeks if she's not better and then he'll do bloods.

I'm a bit more worried now, as we saw her godmother this morning who used to have ME, and she instantly said that was what dd had (I'm not taking it a certainty, obviously). What has worried me about that is that we used to know a family where the mother had MS and the daughter had ME, and guess what? I have MS. I have long thought they were related.

Related because the exhaustion seems very similar, I meant to say

my middle ds is in the process of being diagnosed with m.e and hes very similar although weve had this for over 4 years.

Jux I would push for bloods then push for a consultant.

If it is ME it will be made worse by excerise and doing 'too much'. Her body will basically shut down everytime it thinks it is doing to much.

She will be exhausted, emotionally, achy,

You need the tests to rule out other possiblitlies such as thyroid problems or vitamin deficency

I have to collect DS now so am going to copy and paste a reply I gave to another poster about their daughter who has been diagnosed:

here goes
I have ME so lots of sympathy to your DD.

It is a nasty illness and will as I'm sure you are aware will effect her physcially and mentally.

Things that help me:

not doing too much on anyone day and 'listening to my body'

after a long and agonising decision antidepressants (on a very low dose)they have MASSIVELY helped but were nasty to start with for about 3 weeks (felt suicidal).

Cognative Behavioural Therapy

Changing diet - No wheat (found out allergic) little sugar. lots of slow burn food (porridge etc).

avoiding aerobic exercise

avoiding alcohol (shouldnt be too much of an issue!)

Acupuncture/reflexology

my cousin had ME and completely swore to 'mickle therapy'(sp?) she is much better now. I can't afford to go to the therapy and it isn't available on the NHS.

If my DH were here he would also offer his sympathies to you. I do have mood swings and can't 'deal' with stress well and get a bit over the top hysterical. This has almost gone since being on the antidepressants though. It can be very frustrating to live with. Also as he will probably seem ok one mintute then not the next it can be hard to understand.

Action for ME is a useful website.

there are also ME clinic as across the country and some consultants are ME specialists. Push for them, I went to one outside of my bourgh.

A good book to read is 'living with ME'.

Your poor boy, it's hard as an adult but worse as a child I really hope he starts feeling better soon.

Jux is you have any questons posted them and I will try and look later today

Oh bloody hell. Just off for a little weep and then to pick her up after an hour of school, wonder how she'll be.

Jux - god sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset. The info I gave was to someone who's child had been diagnosed fully.

you need to first of all get a proper diagnosis, she may just have a crappy virus that is going around, or it may be something easy to sort out.

It may be that she is just a little poorly after her illness and will feel completely better in a day or two.

I know that if you get plenty of rest in the early stages and try and not push things that recovery is much quicker and much less likely to develop into anything else.

sorry again I was in a rush I'm hope your DD feels better soon

does she have heavy periods/anaemia?
ask for investigations if she is this poorly,it could be a number of things

could she have embarassing symptoms like bowel disease she has not told you?

She's only 9, morningsun, I get more info about her internal processes than I want really! Periods haven't started. Doctor checked for anaemia (as had I) by pulling down her under-eye lid - nice and red.

Noonki, don't worry, it wasn't you setting me off, really. I was a bit worried from what her godmother said, and having known a few people with ME. Because I have MS I get very tired and emotional quickly, but because I am sensible underneath it all, I pull myself together quite fast too. I just have to have that initial weepy bit, where I think everything's too much and then I'm OK. The more I know, the better.

I tend to jump to worst case scenario, have a sniffle, think about the basics of how to deal with it, and then go back to reality and the most likely thing, which is:

She probably doesn't have ME. It probably is just that viruses seem to have been particularly horrid this year, and she has got run down from one. We will slowly get her back to her normal self.

Maybe suggest test for glandular fever too, don't panic it is too early to diagnose ME.

I agree with tiredsville. Don?t rush to diagnose. The doc has given a diagnosis of PVF and that sounds a good call. This time of year, all run down, already recovering from nasty viruses, colder, darker, not that suprising it takes a while to bounce back sometimes.
Take each day and follow the sensible advice of the GP, staggering her return to school, letting her rest as much as she seems to need and see how things go over the next week.
Please don?t panic - last thing you need, too, with ms is to be worrying unnecessarily about your child. Hope you have a lovely, relaxing and quiet weekend xx

No, I'm not rushing to diagnose any more. It's like when I had my first major ms attack - I spent 20mins thinking about what I would do in the worst case scenario (wheelchair in 2years, dead in 5) and then, having decided on the practicalities, just carried on as normally as I could - considering I couldn't feel my legs!

I've had a chat with a pharmacist today, who has recommended B vitamins; I've been to the health store and got echinacea and wheatgrass (and nuts and dried fruit). Tonight we had a truly yummy fish pie, almost overloaded with prawns (brain food!). DD has been munching on blueberries all afternoon.

DD was white as paper with eyes that looked bruised all round, when we got her home after just over an hour at school this morning. She has fallen asleep on the sofa, and I will lead her up to bed soon.

If you have any ideas for build-up-immune-system/boost-energy foods, I'd be joyful to hear them!

Thank you all for your help and sympathies.

My dd [8] had glandular fever when she was 2 and it recurs. She has bouts of pvf after a recurrence. Really the only thing she can do is stay off school and take it as easy as possible. When she goes back to school she doesn't do pe or any after school clubs. We also keep the weekends as gentle as possible. The symptoms that you have described sound exactly the same as dd's. Hope that reassures you a bit.

I just wanted to say, as I understand it, PVF is essentially the same / similar symptoms to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the difference being the time it endures (over 6 months and it is classed as CFS). I was told I had PVF and on doing research it seems that the best way to stop this developing into ME / CFS is to make sure you get plenty of rest and eat healthily, and that powering through is a key factor in it becoming a long term problem. So you are doing the right thing in resting your daughter. I am suprised your daughter didn't have blood tests though as this would eliminate any other causes of tiredness, which could potentially be easily treated. I was told I had PVF but eventually after a lot of tests the doctors have discovered that i actually have an auto-immune disease.

Dancindqueeen, what a shame, so sorry to hear that. I suppose in the back of my mind I am always worried that dd may be showing symptoms of ms, but I push them away in favour of more likely/common causes.

The school is OK about her only doing half days at the moment, but her teacher suggested she might be up to a full day come Wednesday; I just said, we'll see how it goes, but I'm feeling slightly under pressure. DD loves him, but he's beginning to annoy me

They pressured me into sending her back for a full day today. She managed, but had that bruised round the eyes look again when I picked her up. DH is going to take her in tomorrow (if she's not too knackered to go at all) and is going to talk to them. I think they think I am one of those silly women with PFB syndrome. Her teacher's a nice enough guy, but I feel like he's talking down to me. PT mtg tomorrow, so I shall try to embarrass him with some sort of erudite remark which makes him feel stupid!