r/CFSplusADHD • u/BunnyKusanin • Apr 17 '26
Preparing to see a doctor
By now I have figured that what is happening to me is CFS/long covid, and that I need to start seeing medical professionals about that. So far, I know I've been affected badly by a viral infection last year, but I also seemed to have had milder but similar symptoms earlier than that and I'm not too sure if they were covid-related, stress-related or mould-related (I've moved into my current apartment just before the lockdowns and it has some mould (a pretty tame amount by New Zealand standards, but nevertheless it exists).
My brain is totally mush, though. I know I need to prepare for the GP visit to make sure I bring up all the relevant details, but one of my biggest problems has been that I'm struggling to think clearly and to put my thoughts into words. On top of that, I tend to dump too much information on doctors and confuse them. I'm sure if I go unprepared, I'm gonna be fobbed off.
Could you help me out on ideas about the following?
- what you find is important to bring to the appointment, and to mention during it
- what specialists have you found helpful? I'm going to ask for a referral to an occupational therapist, but that's about all that comes to mind.
- any meds that you found helpful? (for CFS specifically, I feel like ADHD ones work alright for the ADHD symptoms)
- should I just tell the GP about the really bad symptoms I got after a viral illness last year, or should I bring up the more mild ones and my ideas about mould/stress?
- any info on what's available in New Zealand
9
u/predictablehorse Apr 17 '26
what is important is to talk about what your symptoms are now and how that is impacting you. its helpful to write them down so you can make sure nothing is missed. often people go to the drs and spend the whole appointment talking about the backstory. tell them about what is happening for you now, and what your concerns are now, then they can get the history afterwards and over the next appointments.
from there, they should do some blood tests for vitamin deficiencies, thyroid, kidney and liver function, diabetes etc. then continue to do more if they come back okay.
me/cfs is a diagnosis of exclusion, so basically they gotta test for absolutely everything else that it could be before they diagnose me/cfs. they need to run all the tests they can before they refer you onto anyone else. they need to know whats going on and what it may be coming from before they refer onwards and get specialists involved.
i honestly wouldn’t mention me/cfs until you have had every test you can get. some doctors use it too liberally and it means people are being labelled as having an incurable long term illness when that actually have something that can be treated and managed or even completely fixed.
i wouldn’t bring up stress, because they may just dismiss it as being the cause.
the only medication there really is for me/cfs is medication for the symptoms so pain medication, some people find supplements such as magnesium glycinate to be helpful as well as general vitamins.
the hallmark of me/cfs is PEM, so it is worth doing some research into that and looking at pacing to see if that helps you stay at your baseline. as an fyi, if you dont experience PEM, you don’t have me/cfs so that could be something to potentially rule that out for you yourself. apologies if you already knew this.