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Well, a couple of years before I became ill, it was discovered that a major US fast food chain had been sent horse meat labeled as "beef" from an oversees supplier. :eek: I remember people making jokes about it, like telling their burgers before they took a bite, "Whoa, boy!" When I looked...

I wonder when/where the term "post-exertional malaise" originated. [below modified from original post] I got a hit from Google suggesting it was in the 1988 CFS "Working Case Definition" from the CDC, but it does not seem to be in that report. I assume that this aspect of the disease...

The muscles soreness that healthy people feel the day after exercise is called "DOMS." It stands for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. So, perhaps delayed PEM could be called something like "DOSA," for Delayed Onset Symptom Amplification.

Perhaps the most famous use of the word "malaise" (in the US at least) never occurred. In the summer of 1979, then President Jimmy Carter gave a national speech about meeting the challenges of the energy crisis. Carter felt that the nation needed to overcome a "crisis of confidence" in order...

I don't have an issue with the medical usage of "malaise," but its lay use can be associated with "ennui," a feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction, a lack of initiative and a possible precursor to depression. I assume we can rely on physicians to know the difference, but psychologists...

I was just thinking about this a couple of days ago, wondering if PEM delay might be linked to the severity of other symptoms - like... is PEM delay shorter when symptoms are severe? The idea that repeatedly re-triggered PEM from constant exertion attempts could actually be a factor in the...

Seems like it might be a pattern made by the fingertips/nails if the hand were moved in an arc from below by swiveling it from the wrist. Place your hand on a flat surface and swivel it by the wrist to see what I mean. The nails would have to be pretty sharp (or ragged) to make such fine arcs...

I have trouble with right and left when giving directions, but I know which is which internally. I blame years of daily group recitations of the US Pledge of the Allegiance in primary school. The teacher would always begin with "Right hand over heart. Ready. Begin." I think this somehow formed a...

The definition of PEM which most closely mirrors my own experience came from Dr. Komaroff when he used it to distinguish ME/CFS from depression: The aspect that critically matches my experience is that PEM peaks the next day, not immediately following exertion. This seemed like it was reflected...

The whole of the epidermis is made up of cells that are constantly making their way to the surface of the skin, so the spots may just be along for the ride. It takes about 7 weeks for the cells to move from the bottom to the top layer (it might take longer on the hands because there is an...

Maybe this is a dumb question, but wouldn't protozoans, like trypanosomes, be fairly obvious in the blood stream? Perhaps they can hide out somewhere, but, from what I've seen, diagnosis is confirmed by blood test. Or is the the idea be that the immune system may be continuing to react to a past...

The closest I ever got to Africa was the "Jungle Cruise" ride at Disneyland... and I still got this disease.

FWIW, I have similar red/brown dots (see below) that reach from my ankles to about midway up my calves. The "freckling" is actually staining of the skin left over from previous dots. This started when I was about 40 and has nothing to do with sun exposure. It might be a benign form of...

As a teenager, probably up to about age 20, I had the blisters seen in @strategist's photo (though mostly larger and fewer in number). It was generally between the fingers, but sometimes it was on the palms (both hands) as well (where it was flatter and deeper under the skin). I assume this is...

You should be more cautious when preparing your tintypes.

"The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end." - Henry L. Ellsworth, U.S. Commissioner of Patents, Annual Report, 1843 [ But he seems to have been just joking about, and was perhaps...

It could be anything that is corrosive, like cleaning chemicals. If so, I'd think it would have to be a fine powder or mist to cause little dots like that. I'm virtually certain I've seen this on my own hands, but, dang it, I can't recall what caused it. :banghead: :)

I think you're right, and that "prodrome" does not mean that the disease process hasn't started, just that it doesn't meet the official diagnosis yet. If that's right, then, by most current definitions, the "prodrome" of ME/CFS technically lasts at least six months - since that's how long you...

Following onset, I developed mild anemia with low RBC's, high MCH and normal hemoglobin. I think this is called "macrocytic anemia," but I could be wrong. The physician attributed it to loss of appetite, but I never told him I had lost my appetite... because, at that point, I hadn't. Actually...

Have you been handling any materials that might be considered corrosive? This webpage discusses something that looks very similar (see image below) and it turned out to be from handling a jar containing corrosive silver nitrate. Another possible source of silver nitrate might be from the tips...