A woman who went to bed with a simple cold has revealed how she woke up six weeks later – and the only cure was to change her life completely.
When Jan Rothney started with a case of the sniffles, she simply put it down to being rushed off her feet daily.
But when the cold didn’t budge after a few weeks, she decided an early night was in order to get rid of it once-and-for-all.
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After waking up, though, Jan felt worse than before – and in a complete daze, tried to seek help from her two daughters.
It was then, when looking at the calendar, that the sheer shock set in, as she had been asleep for a month-and-a-half.
“My girls had to keep telling me that I had been asleep the whole time, as I didn’t believe them,” the former lecturer, from Devon, told Need To Know.
“Their faces looked so worried, though.
“Everything felt like a dream as I swayed between consciousness and confusion.
“In a state of shock, I worked out that I had been asleep for 45 days.
“Nothing, in that moment, felt real.”
Jan, aged 65, had been at the pub with a few mates, drinking wine, when the cold-like symptoms had all gotten too much.
She headed off early and tucked herself into bed on 11 September 2003.
And then didn’t wake up until 26 November 2003.
Her daughters, after realising she wasn’t waking up, called on their grandma – Jan’s mum – and their next-door neighbour for help.
As she was still breathing, nobody phoned 999 to alert medics or have her hospitalised.
Instead, over the next few weeks, they worked together tirelessly to give Jan fluids so she wouldn’t get dehydrated.
As she wasn’t able to eat, though, the mum lost over 7lbs.
In the days that followed, when waking up, the feeling of exhaustion took over.
When trying to go to the toilet, she’d collapse on the bathroom floor and fall asleep again for a few hours.
Not getting any better, she was taken to her local doctors, where blood and urine tests were performed.
It turned out her innocent cold was actually myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME); also known as chronic fatigue syndrome.
The long-term illness presents itself as extreme fatigue and can impact cognitive functions, including memory.
Jan said: “It was absolutely terrifying to suddenly go from being super active to completely incapacitated, mentally and physically.
“I’d been severely run down, which had triggered the symptoms.
“I clung to the fact I could recover by focusing on small milestones, like getting out of bed each day.
“Some mornings, I’d slide my bum down the stairs because it was just too exhausting to walk.
“One day, I fell asleep in the hallway.
“When I woke up, I never knew how long I’d been sleeping for – it was either a few hours or all day.”
Slowly, Jan built up the strength to drive to the shops five months after her diagnosis.
Sadly, her symptoms came back three years later, and she ended up being asleep for days.
She was referred to a chronic fatigue clinic, where it was made clear she had to completely overhaul her lifestyle.
Quitting her job, she retrained as a health coach and penned a book about her experience.
Jan devised a step-by-step recovery plan – including the need to stay calm when symptoms arose and to note any tiny evidence that her body was getting better – to improve her physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.
Now, she prioritises exercise and has a balanced and healthy diet.
It’s currently been 20 years since her last sleeping episode.
Jan added: “It’s been a hard road, but I have more energy than ever before now.
“I’ve taught my body to thrive again.
“Many of us are given a wake-up call to change the way we are living – and this was definitely that.
“If I had carried on living an unsustainable lifestyle and accommodating everyone, I could’ve become far more ill.
“I absolutely feel that, in a weird way, this illness saved my life.”
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