Anaesthesia and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

[Guest guest]

Hello and welcome to the 'A Hummingbirds Guide to Myalgic Encephalomyelitis'

e-newsletter for November 2006.

 

As always I hope it finds you and yours all doing as well as possible.

 

Just a few small new projects (and other things) to announce this month.

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A new topic is available in the 'Research and Articles' section:

 

Anaesthesia and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

 

It is well-documented that patients with M.E. respond differently to

anaesthetics in a number of ways, and that anaesthetics can cause severe and

prolonged

relapse in M.E. patients. For this reason I have been wanting to put together

a brief anaesthesia guide together for some time.

 

Two of my most favourite people, both very severe M.E. sufferers, are having

to undergo surgery next month unfortunately and so I decided to move this

project forward and it is now available online for all sufferers.

 

Unlike each of the other research and articles sections, this section on

anaesthesia can be downloaded in a Word or PDF format so you can print a copy

for

your doctor/anaesthesiologist. See:

 

http://www.ahummingbirdsguide.com/topicanaesthesia.htm

 

This page also contains a link to the excellent 2 page paper by Dr Elizabeth

Dowsett on anaesthesia and M.E., which may also be downloaded in Word

format. Best of luck to every M.E. sufferer due to undergo surgery!

 

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More new topics available in the 'Research and Articles' section

 

New topics include:

Metabolic Research, General Articles and Research Overviews, M.E. is not

defined by 'fatigue', On the supposed role of 'stress' in the causation ofM.E.,

The Outbreaks (and Infectious Nature) of M.E., M.E. Fatalities, Articles sorted

by Country and Historical, Political and Medical Overviews

 

New featured authors include:

M.E. Research UK, (MERGE), Research into M.E., (RiME), The 25% M.E. Group

and there is also a new Author Overviews section.

 

See all of these new sections on the main 'Research and Articles' page:

 

http://www.ahummingbirdsguide.com/researcharticles.htm

 

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Cutting edge DVD by US Dr Cheney M.D. is now available!

 

As many of you will already know, Dr Cheney - a doctor with over 20 years

experience with M.E. and who has seen literally thousands of M.E. patients

(though he calls the illness 'CFS' it is undoubtedly M.E. he describes) - has

recently made public some very interesting theories on specific cardiac and

vascular

abnormalities in M.E. which are responsible for much of the symptomatology of

the illness, including the activity/exercise intolerance and worsening of

patients with exercise.

 

A new reasonably priced double DVD set (a taping of a lecture by Cheney) is

now available which outlines this theory in more detail, thanks to the DFW

group (who are to be 'heartily' congratulated for this initiative!). This DVD

also

includes a section on treatment.

 

Details on how to purchase the DVD are available on the Cheney page on my

website:

 

http://www.ahummingbirdsguide.com/wcheney.htm

 

There are also links on this page to:

1. View the entire 3 hour lecture for free online (if you have a broadband

internet connection) on the MESA website

2. Find out more about the DVD and the different sections available on it

3. Read Dr Cheney's introductory paper on this topic 'The Heart of the

Matter'

4. Read a summary of some of the main points of this DVD (written by Margaret

Williams)

3. Read other papers by Dr Cheney

 

How wonderful to hear the cardiac and vascular components of the illness

(which are largely what M.E. IS, and are what separate M.E. from many other

superficially similar illnesses), being discussed in such a way! These features,

particularly the cardiac problems have long been omitted or minimised in

descriptions of the illness (along with several other important key features)

and of

course the ridiculous recommendation that people with M.E. exercise (because it

helps some 'fatigue' sufferers who do not have

M.E.) are a longstanding problems also. This lecture clearly highlights the

dangers and counterproductive nature of GET (or exercise) for M.E. sufferers.

 

For those who are well enough to view it, this is a must see. For the rest of

us, we'll just have to keep waiting for that (hopefully soon to be available)

transcript!

 

[Note: Although I've read each of these other papers, I have not viewed the

DVD myself and will probably not be able to do so for the foreseeable future.

I'm one of those who is eagerly awaiting a transcript.]

 

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Translators wanted: UPDATE

 

Thank you to those translators who have generously offered their services to

translate some of the main papers on my website in response to the request I

made about this last month. There should be a small number of translated papers

available soon.

 

However, in thinking about translations and issues of accessibility, I have

realised there is another important language I have left out, and that is,

SPOKEN LANGUAGE! While many M.E. sufferers can read a small amount but really

struggle with audio input, a significant number have the opposite problem and do

much better with audio inputs rather than the written word.

 

So stay tuned for MP3 audio files of some of the main papers on my site!

I've already got some volunteer readers all lined up and the first few

downloadable MP3's should be available in the next few months.

 

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Last months outstanding new articles by other authors links: CORRECTION!

 

Last month I highly recommended the article: A New and Simple Definition of

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and a New Simple Definition of Chronic Fatigue

Syndrome & A Brief History of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis & An Irreverent History

of

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (an extract, PDF format) by Dr Byron Hyde M.D.

 

However, there was a problem with the link. Please see the link below to

view this article, if you the link didn't work for you previously:

 

http://www.ahummingbirdsguide.com/whyde.htm

 

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That's it for this month!

 

Best wishes as always to everyone and all the best in your ongoing battle

with M.E. (or your loved one's battle with M.E.) - until next month!

 

By the way: Last month I apologised for how long it was taking me to get

through my e-mail, but that I was up to April 2006 so far and should be far more

up to date soon. Unfortunately I've had to take an extended break away from the

computer completely this month, and so I'm still only up to April.

I live in hope I wont be saying the same thing next month, fingers crossed!

Again, thank you all for your patience.

 

Jodi Bassett

--

A Hummingbirds Guide to Myalgic Encephalomyelitis:

www.ahummingbirdsguide.com

 

Both the earliest definition (HOLMES et al, 1988) and its revision (FUKUDA,

1994) elevated tonsillitis, glandular enlargement and fatigue to unreal

importance while overlooking the characteristic encephalitic features of the

genuine

illness. These mistakes also inflated the possibility of a psychiatric

diagnosis, leading to the incorporation of such a heterogeneous population of

psychiatric and non-psychiatric causes later on, that research groups of

different

persuasions were unable to compare results or evaluate treatment. A Rose By Any

Other Name: Dr Elizabeth Dowsett

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