what makes us different? please share . . .

Hello all, I felt the same way all my life I hurt all the time but thought it was from being a rough little tomboy. I did not hurt when pregnant either and second pregnancy was the best year of my life I felt good until 7th month and then got toxemia and have been sick with something ever since. If not one thing something else. I finally got diagnosed and when I started reading about fibromyalgia I knew I had always had it. I have to go see mom in nursing home today. It is a one hour drive so I will get stiff so I will talk to you later.

PREGNANT!!!!! MS people usually feel better when pregnant too! "They" surmise it has to do with the immune system. Whatever it is that enables a woman to carry a foreign body (a baby) in her body for 9 months without rejecting it, usually indicates some type of calming effect on the immune system, which in these diseases is usually attacking the body.

I am blown away at how much I can relate too...It's as if I am reading my story, except written by someone else.............

My DD and I were amazed when we started reading about fibromyalgia(fms) at all the little things that were described that was describing us so well. She even has a callous on her foot in the exact location that many people with fms have. Our sweat stains white shirts badly and that was mentioned. Severe scarring is another. You know the diagnosis is right when you can check almost all the boxes and we could. It explained so many mysteries for us. Now if we could find answers we would be ok. I love gardening but I am not great at it. I read somewhere that handling soil with your hands can cause toxins in your body and toxins cause problems for fms patients. Has anyone else read that?

Carrie, I am sorry we have started talking about fms on your thread.I was not looking at name of thread.

It's not my thread! I was sort of hoping it could be more of a disability and solutions thread than a fibromyalgia thread, but talk about whatever you like. I may be away for a few days. I mean, I WILL be away from home for a few, but my 'square-headed boy-friend' is coming along (DH's name for my laptop) and if I pass through a wireless network, I may pop in.

I love the "square headed boyfriend " label for a ;laptop, Carrie.....Thanks for the chuckle

Carrie, I just mentioned on the other thread how we all need you and the help you can give us on gardening from chair. I have to sit because of pain in back so we will need your advice on what works etc. I will miss you hurry back and God Bless.

Hi all,
I'm new here and already feel at home,

I've quite a few chronic problems such as Diabitis,High blood pressure,low thyroid,chronic depression,good ole Arther,psorisis,congestive heart failure,rosacia,a malformed kidney that loves to grow large kidney stones.

I grew up around gardening with my grandmother. Have always loved it. Even when living in apartments when younger,i had my potting plants. For depression, plants are my salvation as important as any medicine i can take. The CHF slows me down the most. I'm not in that much pain from anything. My problem is i can't breathe on exertion and become extremely tired.

I'm slowly digging up my daylillies and other flowers and replanting them in large containers so as i get weaker i'll be able to enjoy my plants longer.I even had tomato and cuke plants. I wish i'd done some container plants long ago as they are thriving so much better in containers.

i cope by saying and doing "I can do one thing at a time" I've always had lots of projects going at a time. Right now i've got two going. Big improvement.LOL!!
I use hand tools in containers and a shovel for transplanting. I do one plant wait an hour and do another, Three plants a day is my limit.

I found DG by a couple of people telling me about it. I'd been on Garden web for years but recently seems like things are going from bad to worse. on a lot of forums people are ranting about everything,even simple questions asked. I got involved in one rant and felt bad, mean and upset about it. So said, "enough" and came to visit over here. The atmosphere alone is so much better. You guys have already been a positive influence on me. So you are stuck with me LOL

My faith is strong tho i don't talk about it alot on line. I feel God in everything nature,Angels too.
I beleive in the Salvation Army and have voluntered for years. Had to quit this year. That was the hardest thing to give up.

How do i cope? I
pray a song that came out years ago that has consistantly got me through bouts of depression.
"I'm just a woman. Lord help me beleive in all that i am and all that i can be."
vickie

Welcome Vickie, you've found the right group! If we get cranky it is just to vent frustration, we are here to lift each other up!

My partner has MS and getting me to do the gardening has been a big help to him lol :-)) He likes to eat all the lovely veg I grow and often suggests new ones I've never tried before. I tried to get him to do some potting on but he killed al the cucumbers and buried all the squash. We had a good laugh about it all the same. I guess gardening and laughter is therapeutic whether you are able bodied or disabled; it's the tag that sets us apart. We are gardeners!
I'm having lots of health problems myself now but I'll never stop gardening. It's in the blood.

"I'll never stop gardening"... it was when I got married, moved into an apartment that I realized how VERY important my flowers were to me! I've had some beautiful flower gardens since. Today I get to help a friend set up a new flower bed. We will transplant some of my mature plants and buy a few at the nursery. Hopefully we can make an impression without too much money spent.

Welcome, Vickie! I'm such a garden-holic that I stopped by at the "other" website thinking I could do a lot more trading and learning if I signed up there, too. Well, I took one look at some of the threads and it scared me so bad I high-tailed it outta there! You are indeed, right, the folks here are sooooo much nicer and we have a lot of fun. Lately, I've been so busy I haven't had as much time to check in, but I try to get here at least once a day. I don't always post, but I'm usually lurking in the background.

I may have already mentioned this, and haven't done it yet, but I'm going to try strawbale gardening. No digging! I tried the lasagna gardening and raised beds, and while the latter was better for me, the lasagna gardening was still too much bending over.

Today I planted a Yucca plant (Spanish Dagger or Sword). A friend gave me a huge 4' tall piece, but it was so heavy my DH had to load it in the car with me. Of course, we didn't have gloves with us so we got scratched, poked, and cut up trying to handle it. After we got it home, I decided it was way to large for us to try and plant so I stripped (this time with gloves on) about 1/2 of the leaves from the bottom up and hacksawed off about 1 1/2 feet of it. Much lighter and easier to manage. The hardest part was digging the hole for it. The ground is all clay and rock hard right now. Had to use the maddox to get it deep enough. Well, I'll be paying for it tonight. :-(

JoAnn

LOL Jo Ann. You sure you did'nt come to Arkansas to dig your yucca hole. Thats what we got, rock and clay.

Decided to stick to dirt planting so i can get my hands nice and dirty. love the smell and feel of dirt.

psychw2, There's no better way to feed your creative hunger than to help make a garden painting with a friend.
It is nice of you do help out.

roseimp, Can see you and your pardner laughing over the cukes and squash. Buried the squash huh? That must have been hard to do.LOL!!

Carrie,I'm glad you started this thread. I wanted to let you guys know my basic problems yet not seem to complain. This thread was the answer. Square headed boyfriend? Of course, good friend too.Huh?!!

I don't trust western medicine that much anymore either. Am glad also we at least can plan to a certain extent for the future.
vickie

"roseimp, Can see you and your pardner laughing over the cukes and squash. Buried the squash huh? That must have been hard to do.LOL!!"
Dunno how to do that funny box thingy - I'm a newbie here and yes Cando, it does take a very special skill to bury squash. He was so apologetic - he eats better than he gardens. Bless him.
:-))
Rosie

HEY! I resemble that remark! I KNOW I eat better than I garden too!

I'm glad I started this thread too! I've been out of town :-( saying goodbye to DD#1but I'm BACK. Haven't dared look at the garden yet!

Leaflady said this on the fibromyalgia thread, and it summed up a lot of my feelings too.

LOL I love you lot

I thought you said "I love you a lot" and I was going to say "Me? But you barely know me!" Then I slowed down my brain to stop the neurons from cross-firing at each other and read it directly! We love you too!

While I don't like the term "think outside the box", it is what we are good at when we find other ways to accomplish what needs to be done. Maybe a better word would be flexible minded.

That's good, Cathy, because there's NO part of my body that's flexible!

"creatively adaptable"

"creatively adaptable" I like that. It also leaves a little room for explaining the wrong way i've gone about adapting sometimes,such as getting a step to make me taller in reaching a cabinet shelf.NOPE!! I simply fall off.(something about pinching off a nerve in back of neck,when looking up as we age ) Found out a hand extender works much better.

I like flexable minded too. Tho flexable is'nt a word people use much to describe me.

Guess i'd better be put on that list of eating better than i garden.

Who is rural and who lives in town-city?

I'm very rural. thought about moving to town,closer to health care and stores than decided it was not for me. I love seeing the wildlife,myflowers,my quiet privacy.Somehow i'd rather be content than safe.
vickie

I live so close to the city it's not safe!
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/874/

If I lived any more urban, I could not be living in my own home with garden! Seriously, we live in a little mobile home park for seniors. Our lot is microscopic and our neighbors are RIGHT next to us but at least we own the home. I am more used to the pleasure of a BIGGER house with a lot more space outside too but this does fit our needs for now and more is affordable than alternatives.

Our town is so small and we live within the city limits, but it's so rural that there's a huge cattle and horse farm directly across the street from us.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=s&ie=UTF8&ll=33.976463,-83.275917&spn=0.00371,0.006824&t=h&z=17

Our house is the one in the middle of the pic with the brown roof.

JoAnn

At least you have access to manure! :-)

LOL! Yep, and lots of it. In fact, tomorrow I've got the car after I take DH to work and plan to visit the owner of the farm who also owns the local Ace Hardware store in Athens, to ask him if I can get some manure.

I've got a friend who has chickens, too. :-D

JoAnn

Carrie, We lived at Fort Devans up at Ayer for several years in the 60,s. Mass is a beautiful state and we made some good friends from there.Read the Boston Globe at least once a week. You've got to be much safer there than most cities that size. You've got the best of all worlds. Close to ocean,mnts,historical,urban,rural.

psycw2, If i moved to town,i'd like your living arrangements. I live in a mobile home too. There is just me,well my GS is here for awhile.Also like having everything paid for.The compactness of mobile homes are a big plus.

Jo Ann,How many sites on line could one say...."I envy you, your manure supply." LOL

Have to go into town today to get Requip (generic form). Thats the one med i never let run out.

vickie

I like the size of my yard, it is BEAUTIFUL and I am making it fairly easy to maintain. I just hate having my neighbors RIGHT on top of us! Hummmmmm ok... what I want is for US to have a tiny lot, surrounded by BIG lots and THEIR houses set at the far side from me... oh... and THEY must have beautifully landscaped yards!!! Is that asking too much???

OK, if THAT is not possible, I want a 6 foot white vinyl fence surrounded our property with that beautiful lattice top stuff.... *sigh*, that is against the rules here. We can only have 3 foot chain link, useful but UGLY! I'm planting "stuff" on it like crazy AND planting TALL full flowering bushes along the border...

Oh, in my last house (15 years ago) we had a postage stamp back yard with a chain link fence and a gorgeous view of the fabulously landscaped grounds of a crematorium! But you couldn't see the building from our house, and they had beautiful flowering trees in the spring... From our DR table under certain conditions, you couldn't see the fence, and it looked as if it were OUR beautifully landscaped lot!

I hate rules like that. Here they are very concerned about unregistered cars and pavement area in ratio to lawn area. (They are worried that people are going to rent their yards for parking lots - we're close enough to Boston and parking is that tight.) But WE're not going to, we just want to hang onto my DD's car for her until she gets back from college w/out insuring it the whole time, and right now DH is driving it back and forth in and out of the driveway every night and we owe the insurance co. $600 we don't have. (No overnight parking on the street.)

I live 2 miles from a small rural town and 13 & 18 miles from 2 larger ones. I work, go to church, & shop in the one 13 miles from me & go to the doctor and hospital 18 miles away. The house is 1/4 mile back off the road. My yarden is loaded with weeds. With the rains and the size of it I just couldn't keep up with them. Every bed got weeded at least once, some 3 times but it just wasn't enough.

I have neighbors but they are mostly 1/2 - 1 mile away. Our youngest son and his wife and 4 year old son live about a block away down in the field in a mobile home. We share a well but they have everything else separate.

GOD bless and keep each of you.

psych2 Of course it's not ASKING too much to have the yard and view you want. However the ANSWER is probably no!! ; ) Sounds like you are on the way to solving your problem tho. and the blooms will be a plus. We did that once on a road that let headlights shine in our living room. They did'nt get big enough while we were there but now they're about 25'tall solid fencelike cedar trees.

I detest rules that i feel dictate how i can or cannot use my property.I guess it is the reason i live in the country surrounded by forest.
I can see the reason for some rules in heavily populated areas but not the height of fences but you might know a good reason for such. Nor an extra car if it's running.Of course you've heard of the ole southern redneck green house. An old junked car. Hope it's alright to mention rednecks as i come from a bigtime redneck state and love the jokes. Use to love the Texas Aggie jokes hmmmmmmm come to think of it it's the same jokes just the names have been changed. LOL

Carrie,I had to drop my full coverage and only keep my $79.00 required other car coverage.There are some benefits to country living as in cheap coverage for elderly people who stay mostly in the woods. ; ) Can you go to city hall and get permission to keep another car? With the Boston reputation, I have problems with Bostonians putting up with excessive laws. Thinking of the song "The man on the MTA" And the Boston Tea Party. Hey!!! The rest of the country dependS on you.ROLOL

I would have claimed those landscaped lawns as mine too.

Well have a good night all and a peaceful one. No pains tonight for anyone. and a good day tomorrow.
vickie

I found DG by chance a few years ago. At that time my main interest was tomatos as I was severly disabled and was limited to my gardening. All my growing were in earthboxes and I used the Gardeners Supply sponsored garden scooter to get around. After a while I decided to join and then discovered the Accessible Garden forum although it wasn't called that back then. I think it had a handicap title? Well anyway I found a lot of people like me but they really couldn't enjoy gardening as much as I did as they seemed not to be aware of the tools that were available to help them and ease their gardening enjoyment so I started to share. Such as www.earthbox.com and www.gardenerssupply.com for the scooter. You see I needed all the help I could get as I have Post Polio Syndrome which is very similiar to fibromyalgia plus I was severly obese at 338lbs and 6' tall and always in pain with every movement and had great pain and difficulty with every move. Also many other complications due to my PPS and morbid obesity.
Long story short I decided to have lap-band surgery as most of you are aware of my continous story and weight loss and now really enjoy gardening without pain. A loss of 130lbs does make a big difference in having fun.

TPlant, you have been an inspiration to all of us in so many ways. And a wealth of information on tools, etc. Thank you so much for all your help.

I'm up to my elbows in tiny crab apples and Concord grapes right now. I'm going to make sauce and a little juice to add to the grape juice or some rhubarb with jell-o. I picked what is likely my last picking of rhubarb this morning. I haven't taken much from the plants this summer so I didn't feel bad about picking this late in the season.

I want to make a small batch of rhubarb ice cream if I can find someone else who likes it. If not, I'll just have to half the recipe and drink what I don't eat as ice cream for a smoothie.

I like the 'flexibily creative' too. I often have to be that way to get things done.

GOD bless and keep each of you.

Would someone give me the energy to get in the shower and wash my hair? sigh...

Me too. I'm near collapse stage. Trying to keep my blood sugar level up without overeating. I still have the 2 qt. of crab apple juice to can and the rhubarb to cut up and put in the freezer. Something or both may have to wait until Saturday. I got 16 1/2 pints of grape/crab apple sauce done this afternoon. Only one didn't seal well.

OMG leaf, you have the energy of ten Carries! 16 1/2 pints of sauce done in one afternoon? My goodness. I'm dreading the trip to Staples tomorrow to buy DD#2 5 spiral notebooks, 1 binder, 20 dividers, a protractor, etc.

Gee leaf, I can see nothing slows you down. You have inspired me to do some more digging Saturday. I use to carry peppermint candy for falling blood sugar levels.For some reason seemed to work better for me than plain sugar.
tplant,Thanks much for the links.my puter is stuborn today and could'nt get there. but should tomorrow.

Today was a sad day. A good neighbor passed away. He and my oldest DD were close (she drove up from Texas today)and his wife was one of my best friends.She died 3 yrs ago My DH 4 yrs ago.My neighbor was 85. An unusual man in that untill 3 months ago he climbed mnts and valleys all thru this area all day long.A good man. I shall miss him.
vickie

Vickie, I am sorry for your loss. It hurts to lose a neighbor and friend. They are like family in many cases. You sometimes see them more often than you see some of your own family members. I hope you see him in your mind's eye when you gaze upon the mtns and valleys and remember him in pleasant recollection. Grieve as you must, but be happy for the life he lived. It must have been nice to be so strong and able for most of his life. Only three months of not doing the things he must have loved to do. I would say that is an indication of good health and happiness. Remember that with joy!

I have only lurked here, but wanted to express my condolences to you.

Charlene