Thank you for this. I am older and retired years ago, but, 3.5 years in with LC fatigue, cannot do what I used to do either - active volunteer work, Yoga 3x a week, and playing chamber music weekly in a Baroque trio.

I appreciate how calmly and clearly you describe our shared condition. My husband is your Beth and I have similar emotions about being taken care of. Yesterday he urged me to “just” accept it after I shared a different essay with him, which he found to be full of anger. He then gave me a YouTube link, one of many over the years, on using gratitude to recover from CFS. Right.

But it is the isolation, which you describe so well, that gets to me and adds so much grief. It is a hard, spiritual/emotional journey. I appreciate your writing, especially because you gave of yourself to share it. You didn’t have to, but you did, and it helps us.