On the road to recovery Part 1 - There is Hope

There has been a lot of speculation in recent years about what causes ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), especially with its younger brother, Long Covid, causing so many to have to leave jobs and totally rethink their lives in the face of what we are told is untreatable, mysterious and scary. I wanted to tell my story to add my voice to those who know this simply isn’t true, who have found out what the problem is that shuts the body down and who can show that our bodies are made in an amazingly clever way to deal with what life throws at them.  I have found that when we learn how to listen to our bodies, they will tell us what the problem is and with help, we can, in a lot of cases, reverse the effects of the illness over time.

My name is Rowena McEwan. Before I got sick, I was a long-distance HGV driver. Like many who find themselves with ME/CFS, before I was sick, I was a very active person and much like almost all the drivers in the transport/haulage industry, I was working 12 to 15-hour days as standard. I would leave for work on a Monday and return on a Friday. The truck was my home during the week. I cooked in it, slept in it, worked those long hours traveling up and down the country delivering all sorts of essentials to distribution centres and factories, helping keep the supply chain moving. I was involved in loading the trailers, securing the loads and figuring out how to get in and out of locations that trucks really shouldn’t be sent to. As you can imagine, it is tiring work. 

In December 2021, I contracted the omicron variant of COVID-19. It was a bad case and I got really sick. It took 2 weeks to get the virus out of my system and it was a grim 2 weeks at that. However, even after the virus had gone my body wasn’t doing very well. Like many others who had bad cases of COVID I was left feeling absolutely drained and weak. I also begin needing an inhaler more because I had trouble catching my breath. There was no way I could work like that.  I had to stop work for 3 months, leaving the company I was with. There is no such thing in the transport industry as paid sick leave and the company I was with were up to tricks anyway so they ended my contract. 3 months later I began to return to agency work, doing shifts for companies like FedEx, Asda distribution and others.

I had noticed that my lungs were never the same since covid and various other signs were showing that my body had been hit hard by the virus. I managed to get back into the swing of things however, securing regular work with a local transport company for near on 2 years, I  continued working right up until Easter of 2024. However, in March 2024 I contracted yet another virus. I am not sure what that virus was, but it knocked me back to all the same symptoms as I had in 2021, mainly extreme fatigue as well as breathing issues. Again, I had to leave work, so I gave myself another 3 months, knowing that I was able to bounce back after that long the first time. The problem was, this time I was struggling to bounce back. I attempted to start work again in the July, but I had to give that idea up as it just wasn’t possible to push myself to do it anymore. I’ve always been a ‘mind over matter’ type worker, so the fact that I no longer had the ability to do that really showed me that something serious was going on.

I will be forever grateful for the prayers and support of my friends and family at that time, because unbeknown to me I was going to be able to access help that very few find so quickly when they are first hit with the reality of ME/CFS. I have heard of so many stories of people struggling for years and years before they find the treatment I found, and many still not able to access it or don’t even know its available. This is why I think its important for me to sign post others to the fact that help is available and to tell my story.

So, how did I stumble on the help? For many years, before I was ill, I attended an Osteopath clinic. My job takes its toll, physically, and being a tall lass who is built like a rugby player, I’ve always known the importance of taking care of my back because being stuck in a truck far away from home with a back that had seized up is no fun. Believe me. So at my next visit, after I came down ill, I had gone to see my Osteopath, Michael Gregson, and had told him about what had happened and that I was no longer working. To my surprise, he said that there was a new practitioner, Mark Singleton, at the clinic who was offering treatment for people with ME/CFS/Long Covid. I didn’t realise a treatment existed as its not available on the NHS. Intrigued, I contacted Mark, who introduced me to the Perrin Technique^TM and the work of Dr Raymond Perrin. Dr Perrin is an Osteopath and Neuroscientist who, unbeknownst to me, had been treating CFS in Prestwich, Manchester (not far from where I grew up) since the year I was born! Taking a trip down memory lane, I got myself over to the clinic in Prestwich to find out if there was anything that could be done about my situation. They explained how Long Covid is basically the same as ME/CFS¹ and how it is caused by the build up of toxins in a person’s body, affecting the brain, the spine and the nervous systems the body uses to function day to day^1,2. In simple terms, the body is equipped with 2 drainage systems to get toxins out, one through the blood (small toxins) and the other through the lymphatics (larger toxins). The problem is that with CFS patents, the lymphatic system is clogged up, there is simply too much trying to get through, causing problems throughout the body. I learnt that it wasn’t the virus’ that caused my problem, nor how much I had been working, though that didn’t help either. The fact was that these things acted much like straws that break the proverbial camel’s back. My body just couldn’t fight like it should be able to, because it was dealing with so much already.

At the initial appointment, I had a physical assessment where Dr Perrin assessed key areas that showed that my lymphatic drainage system isn’t working properly and from this, as well as a questionnaire and chatting through my health history, was able to rate my condition on a scale of 0 to 10. 0 being really bad and 10 being healthy². I was given a score of between 2 to 3. This hit home quite hard that my body was needing me to stop trying to get back to work. He said it would take 2 years to get my system back to working properly again but that it would take perseverance and commitment to get me there. This was no short-term, quick fix. I needed to follow his instructions and to commit to it.

Within the month, I had begun my weekly Perrin treatments at the clinic in Preston. I can only say how thankful I am that I had access to this so close to home and didn’t have to travel far, especially as I used Ubers some weeks simply because even driving 10 min from my flat became too tiring, and for a trucker, that’s saying something.

Part two coming soon  

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Resources (click to access): 

Michael Gregson: Fulwood Therapy Center

Mark Singleton: Perrin Practitioner 

Dr Raymond Perrin: The Perrin Technique

 References

¹Through the Looking Glass: Diagnosing and Treating Long Covid Using the Perrin Technique, Dr Raymond Perrin, Hammersmith Health Books, 2024

²The Perrin Technique, Dr Raymond Perrin, Hammersmith Health Books, 2021