The daily fight - but you don't look sick...

Everyday I am fighting this illness.
But you don't look sick - I hear you cry.

On a bad day I feel like my limbs are made of lead, they are heavy and hurt to move.
My head aches, my eyes are heavy and swollen.
I have all manor of digestive problems, always having to look carefully at everything I eat.
I can't form sentences, I struggle to find the right words.
I'm dizzy, nothing is quite how it should be.
If I have to go out then it gets worse because anxiety kicks in. Not a fear of going out, but of suddenly developing a new symptom, or passing out randomly.
Over stimulation, noise, heat, light, people, can all be too much.

But none of this you can see.

On a good day often my head still aches, my eyes are still puffy. I still struggle to find words, and over stimulation bothers me.
That's why on the dullest of days I will still be wearing my sunglasses - special skiing ones which still aren't dark enough sometimes.
If we go to a toddler group we try to be first in, as once it gets busy the noise, the heat in the room and all the people is too much for me to bear.

I love having people popping in for a cuppa and a natter, it makes me feel normal, though tires me out quickly.
It doesn't happen often though as people have their own busy lives, sometimes it feels like we are caught in a time warp, standing still while the rest of the world is running around us.

So yes I might not LOOK sick, but believe me I'm still fighting.

P.S. I've just realised I haven't mentioned fatigue in all of this!
Fatigue is of course the one symptom which is always there, some days worse than others.
You know how you feel at the end of a really busy day where you've been running round non stop and you can not wait to get to bed. That's how I feel when I wake up most mornings, before I've even gotten out of bed...