CFSupport

The Northern Virginia
CFS/FMS
Support Group

 
Group News

 Home          Email Us         Subscribe        Search       Sitemap 


Selections from our EMAILS and NEWSLETTERS

March 2001

BD Barcodes
Dr. Koop & CFIDS
National Fibromyalgia Partnership
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Alternative Medicine Websites
What is CFS/CFIDS?
Federal Tax Withholding for SSDI
Help Reviewing Lab Test Results
CFS/Seabiscuit/Hillenbrand in Washington Post
Member Quote
Smiles

Introduction

Welcome to CFSupport Group News! To receive all of our emails and newsletters, please join our email list and Yahoo! group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CFSupport .

As a member of our CFSupport Yahoo group, you would be able to browse and search our archives, use our Calendar of local and national groups, download files, use our rideshare database as well as receive current updates of interest regarding CFS/M.E., fibromyalgia, and related illnesses. We keep the number of emails to less than one per day on average.


BD Barcodes

Do you use BD products such as syringes? Alcohol swabs? Through the end of 2001, BD will make a donation to diabetes research for each barcode from bottoms of boxes or products for diabetes care. If you are using the stuff for CFS, send them anyway. Cut out barcodes and send them to Benefit Diabetes Program, PO Box 5940, Young America, MN  55558-9940.


Dr. Koop & CFIDS

C. Everett Koop’s Web site, koop.com, has an article on  “elusive illnesses” which includes CFIDS. The article includes fact sheet and resource link. The CFIDS section features an interview with Kim Kenney, CEO of the Association, and information on  Georgetown University study on the effectiveness of NADH as a treatment for CFIDS.

Added 05/06: The website is now DrKoop.com and the above article is no longer there. An overview, symptoms, and treatment of CFS are given in this link:
http://www.drkoop.com/ency/93/001244trt.html


National Fibromyalgia Partnership

The Fibromyalgia Association of Greater Washington Inc (FMAGW) will be known as the National Fibromyalgia Partnership Inc (NFP). Its quarterly journal Fibromyalgia Frontiers tracks and reports on new medical research related to FM and associated conditions. It has established a toll-free phone number, 866-725-4404. The website is  www.fmpartnership.org .


Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Free book on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: "Hope for Recovery Understanding PTSD" offered by the PTSD Alliance, explores memory flashes, irritability, sudden anger, detachment from loved ones & other symptoms. Automated: 877-507-PTSD (7873). info@ptsdalliance.org
(Links added 05/06.)


Alternative Medicine Websites


What is CFS/CFIDS?

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is defined as a debilitating and complex disorder characterized by profound fatigue, pain and cognitive problems not improved by bed rest. These symptoms may be worsened by physical and mental activity. Persons with CFIDS/CFS function at a substantially lower level of activity than they were capable of before the onset of the illness. Recent studies estimate more than 800,000 Americans are suffering with CFS. For  more information, see our What is CFS/FM? Page and inquired about joining The CFIDS Association of America, www.cfids.org, 704-365-2343.


Federal Tax Withholding for SSDI

One you can have tax withholding from your social security disability income payments. Call SSA at 800-772-1213 for Form W-4V (PDF) from www.irs.gov or print one from link. There are 4 choices of how much money is to be withheld: 7%, 15%, 28% and 31%. This may help some avoid having to pay estimated tax quarterly if their benefits are taxable.


Help Reviewing Lab Test Results

Here's a web page called "How to interpret your blood test results." It is more description of what the tests are for than how to interpret, but still helpful in understanding laboratory test results such as BUN and the electrolytes. www.amarillomed.com/howto.htm .


CFS/Seabiscuit/Hillenbrand in Washington Post

Author Laura Hillenbrand (of our group!), who suffers from CFS, just released the book Seabiscuit about horse racing and the Depression. The book got a really uplifting review in the Washington Post on March 9th, page C01. Here is a small excerpt from the article, "Against the Odds: Laura Hillenbrand Surmounted Illness To Cross the Finish Line With 'Seabiscuit' "
By Jennifer Frey
.

Hillenbrand tells all their stories with incredible empathy. There is good reason for that. Just 33 years old, she can't walk more than a block without becoming extremely tired. Her morning shower exhausts her. Vertigo causes the words on her computer screen to dip and weave as she types. Her live-in boyfriend, Borden Flanagan, has to help her with the smallest of needs.

Hillenbrand has chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a condition that can be so disabling -- as it is in her case -- that it leaves many of its victims cloistered from the outside world, lucky to be able to perform the most basic daily tasks. There is minimal treatment, and there is no cure.

Random House editor Jon Karp "once said that Seabiscuit is a metaphor for my life, and he's right," Hillenbrand says, seated in an upright chair in her living room. "The subjects that I've written about -- the men and the horse -- were radically different individuals, but the one thread that pulls through all of their lives and through the events that they lived through together is this struggle between overwhelming hardship and the will to overcome it.

"It's a central theme in this book, and it is the central struggle of my life as well."

If anyone would like to write Jennifer Frey, the author of the wonderful Post article about Laura Hillenbrand, she can reached at freyj@washpost.com .


Member Quote

"I remember the day I felt strong enough to cleanup breakfast with out taking a nap first, I was having a great few moments until I realized that I had been reorganizing the refrigerator to make room for the 4 slice toaster." - Lolly


Smiles

Silly puns to bring a smile to your day :)

What do you get if you feed lemon to a cat? - A sour puss.

What do you have if you have 20 rabbits all in a row and they all back up one step?
          - A receding hare-line.




 Home          Email Us         Subscribe         Search        Sitemap 
Updated May 8,  2006