Finally, Hillenbrand received a diagnosis from John Bartlett, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Chronic fatigue syndrome, he said. Ever since, she has battled the often negative public perceptions of the illness. It's an absurd mischaracterization. Affecting up to 1 percent of the population, CFS is recognized as a medical condition by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which defines its symptoms as both severe chronic fatigue lasting more than six months and a combination of at least four other symptoms, including tender lymph nodes, muscle pain, joint swelling and headaches.
Cases can vary widely in severity.
Hillenbrand is one of those cases. It started on the last day of August, on what she refers to as the darkest night of her life. Encouraged by her progress, Hillenbrand, Flanagan and friends took a trip to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., to the racetrack there. It's an outing that she bitterly regrets. On the way back, Hillenbrand and Flanagan stopped at a friend's house in New Jersey.