Imagine that you one day wake up and struggle to speak, walk and stand.
In spite of a good night’s sleep, you’re far from rested, and you are physically not able to go to the bathroom. What you once took for granted, now requires planning to the letter.
How can one have it if one has the disease ME, also called chronic fatigue syndrome – for the 31-year-old Stine Laybourn is this fact.
about five years ago saw her, that my health was gradually getting worse and worse. What started as a simple stomach ache, developed for a wide range of infections.
I could feel my whole body scream, and I felt that it went into pieces on the inside. At the same time sad that a doctor and said: ‘Well, you are healthy’, says Stine Laybourn.
It was difficult for Stine Laybourn to get doctors to take her condition seriously.
– I have been called hypochondriac and sensitive. The doctors have focused on what the tests have said, rather than listening to how I said that I had it.
the 31-year-old Stine Laybourn. Photo: Alexander Weng Petersen
Throughout the four years went there before Stine Laybourn got a treatment that recalled it, she had use for. Today are suffering from Stine Laybourn of chronic pain, and she can less and less as time goes on.
– It has changed my life completely. I have constant pain in the body, says Stine Laybourn.
ME is an autoimmune disease. This means that the body produces antibodies against itself. The body behaves so suddenly as an anthill, fighting itself.
the Disease can, in the longer term, lead to a chronic stresssituation, reminiscent of post-traumatic stress, as we see it in soldiers.
In Denmark, ME categorized as a so-called ‘functional disorder’ of the health system are processed through the so-called ’gradual rehabilitation’.
This is an approach that Jesper Germany, medical specialist and head of the Clinic, Germany, is very disagree. He has been conducting research in complex disorders in 35 years.
– Denmark uses a terribly bad method. Physical and mental activity damages the people who suffer from ME. It is like giving a shovel to somebody who is standing down in a hole. It, they’re not going up.
I rather think Jesper Germany, that the disease should be categorized and treated as a physical ailment.
– We can, and should not, treat grundsygdommen, as it can be caused by other diseases. It must be worked out from the individual patient’s symptoms, and the fixes are certainly not through rehabilitation, he says.
In the light of the problems with the treatment of the disease had the Danish people’s party sundhedsordfører, Liselott Blixt, on Tuesday night called for a discussion of the challenges with patients who suffer from ME. And here there was consensus to do something else, something more.
today, the Danish Parliament then vote on a text which recognises ME as a physical disorder. The expected ‘yes’ for the change will lead to the 14,000 danes can get a more optimal treatment.