Fran’s Story: Finding Hope After a Lifetime of Fatigue

"My life is in bed. I drink my coffee there. I read there. I’ve built my whole world around staying horizontal."

At 75, Fran had lived with exhaustion for as long as she could remember.
It slowly tightened its grip year after year. “It’s gotten so much worse,” she said. “I feel like I’m carrying weights on my limbs.”

She tried everything: prescription stimulants like Adderall, pain medications like Tramadol, but nothing made a lasting difference. Most days, she could manage a single task before retreating back to bed.

“My life is in bed,” Fran told us. “I drink my coffee there. I read there. I’ve built my whole world around staying horizontal.”

Scrolling chronic fatigue forums on Reddit late at night, Fran described herself as “desperate,” convinced her final chapter would be spent indoors, alone, and exhausted.

A Different Kind of Help

When Fran joined Lume, she wasn’t expecting much. She simply wanted someone to listen, to understand, and to offer a plan.

What she found surprised her.

For the first time, Fran began to learn how her body’s internal clock, the circadian rhythm, was shaping her energy, mood, and sleep. She started practicing small daily changes, like stepping outside for sunlight first thing in the morning.

“I had no idea how much that mattered,” Fran says. “It changed my energy during the day.”

A Glimpse of Life Beyond Fatigue

Within two weeks, Fran noticed something she hadn’t felt in years: hope.

Her mood lifted. Waking up felt easier. She began spending more time upright, even putting a chair in the garden to sit under the trees when the weather was nice.

“It’s given me hope,” she says. “When I read those poor people on Reddit, I want to tell them: it can improve.”

Her days feel lighter. She talks about wanting to paint again, about tackling paperwork she had put off, about life beyond her bedroom walls.

When asked to summarize the experience, she called it:

“An enforced, life-changing process.”

Fran’s transformation wasn’t just something she felt. It showed up in her data as well.

• Sleep and Energy: She wakes with less brain fog and rates her energy and mood as the best they have been in years.

• Hormone Markers: Her melatonin production, once flatlined, now shows a strong and well-timed rise at night. Cortisol balance and circadian rhythm alignment improved dramatically.

• Daily Life: While she still has ups and downs, Fran is no longer confined to bed. She is learning to support her body’s natural rhythms so she can spend her days living, not just enduring.

“It’s given me hope,” she says. “And at this age, that means everything.”