As leaflady said, having Fibromyalgia, Post Polio, MS, Arthritis, etc. creates challenges for us. We live with pain and fatigue that limits and controls what we can do. So we have to find ways to do the usual tasks that will work for each of us. When we think of something we usually share it and often it helps someone else too. That is what makes us family.
Yes, we often get off topic, but that is ok because we are all in the same boat most of the time. We need a place we can rant and rave and be understood because others on here feel the same way for the same reasons much of the time.
Please join us in our continuing discussion and in our mutual support.
Coming from here.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/902028/#new
This message was edited May 1, 2009 6:22 PM
Compassion for Gardeners with Pain - #4
I am very grateful for the people who started and have worked toward the goal of keeping this thread alive. When I found it about 7 months ago, I was searching for something anything that I could identify with here at DG. As a new member I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of forums and threads to be found. In fact , it took about 3 months of scanning the topics to find this one.
Since my first note I have been made to feel welcome, cared for and genuinely loved by many of the other members who regularly write here. Some of us can lift up others when we are able and along the same line others lift us up when they are able. I have never felt so much a part of a family as with the people I have come to know here.
I hope for any newcomer who may be reading this that you will trust us with your words, for it is thru them that we may come to know and love you also.
BirdieBlue
... Sheri, I did not see your "Oh, my aching garden" idea until just now. I was just talking to DH about this beloved thread. (He himself has chronic back pain, due to an OTJ fall where he broke 3 vertebrae 5 years ago.) He said two wise things. (He's wise, but you can't let him get away with too much.) Anyway, he said
1. There is always more than enough pain to go around. (Reminds me of the poor are always with us.)
2. Different kinds of pain are, well, different. MS pain is different from the pain of a broken bone, or a 3rd degree burn or a sinus infection. Or period cramps or childbirth. I had sciatica once Those are the kinds of real pain I have experienced. I've never had a pinched nerve or a torn meniscus or fibromyalgia or a migraine or the kind of pain Cathy has that I don't even understand. (I guess I don't understand fibro pain either.) So let's try to be open to understanding more about each other and maybe, ourselves. I'd like to take away a little of each of your pain tonight and throw it in the ocean!
now, back to your regularly scheduled thread!
LOL, ..well since the garden isn't the ache it was just a silly goofy thought that I really wanted to get on here to hopefully lighten things a little. And you bring up a very good point it IR hard to understand someone else's pain....I think that is why Steph and I have become such dear friends - we know what te other is feeling, that with fibro you hurt and you are gonna hurt more if you do anything and knowing that having fun is gonna make you hurt, just (for me)sometimes drives me to the bed in tears at the futility pf it all; sort of a why even try mode. Well that very thing is what I a dealing with now. I was driven to the bed practically all winter, post surgical (legitimate as it may have been) 3 months more or less in bed has now put me at point zero and the "pain" of all the work rehabbing to where....a point where any activity hurts is really....well perhaps you get the picture...+ add to the mix that m Dr's are VA and not worth much more than a plug nickle (except for the free Rx's that I get. Some are now talking ?RSD (which has been mentioned before)
I thought that what we all had in common was Chronic Pain "issues", that for many if not most of us go with us every single day with rare reprievs...................I am broken hearted about a round-UP tomorrow with fellow DGers that I just don't think I can go to because I cannot stand a 5+hr drive (both ways) + walking around all day. The hardest part is that without a miraculous healing, this Day in day out Chronic Pain is not going away .
I didn't realize that there were so many different kinds of daily unending severe pain....wouldn't a pain roll call be interesting....".BirdieBlue 10+yrs Fibromyalgia, arthritis and other assorted pains including the occasional pain in the neck that I can be"
I'm just babbling now wishing somehow we can all return s it used to be and push aside any hurt feelings and return to being supportive of one another.
Love & prayers, Sheri
Scraps is present today. I was diagnosed 15+years with fibromyalgia. Did someone say roll call? hello everyone and welcome. We want to know how many of you ache and still try to garden. It takes me a day or 2 sometimes to get over a good day in the garden. Or anything else it seems. But I try to keep plugging along. I try new methods for fibro pain relief and have not found a good one yet. I hope someone knows the answer. Love and compassion to anyone who wants to garden so badly that they are willing to lay down if need be just to enjoy watching a flower grow and bloom or a tomato ripen to the perfect color red. come join us and share something funny with us maybe or tell us how bad it is and we will try to cheer you up some if we can by telling a more embarrassing story. Love and prayers, scraps
My name is Cathy and I have a very rare auto-immune liver disease - my liver is slowly shutting down. I have 6 carefully paced hours in the morning, am confined to bed in the afternoon, then 5 hours in the recliner in the evening then back to bed. My eyes do not focus during peak fatigue periods. Eating is always a challenge and I am on a very restricted diet. My body does not process vitamin D so it is like having rickets. I also have Rheumatoid Arthritis in all of my joints but cannot take any of the RA meds or pain killers stronger than tylenol. Being outside in the garden helps depression that is common with liver disease. I run fevers almost constantly. A liver transplant is the only cure, but I have to be a whole lot sicker before I can be listed.
My pain levels often reach the point that breathing hurts, being touched by a finger or a blanket can be unbearable. I am sometimes so weak I cannot hold up a phone or cut my food. My digestive system shuts down from time to time with very unpleasant consequences. Like many of you, there are many other things going on but I think you can see why I'm here in the thread.
My family and friends, including here on DG keep me nearly sane.
Cathy my heart breaks for you my dear. You will be in my prayers forever now. I hope you recieve some comfort soon. I know what a joy each moment means to you. Seeing life around us in the way of flowers, trees, birds, butterflies and babies growing and changing means so much when we have diseases like this. I never appreciated it all enough before. I try to enjoy the little things in life now also. I wish you a good night and will talk to you tomorrow, Scraps
Okay, something funny. We have been having rain all week. I had to go outside or go nuts. Big mistake. My clogs squished down into the mud and I couldn't move. I finally lost my balance and fell over into the mud, thankfully it was a soft fall. My clogs are still stuck but I did transplant a few melons into the raised garden.
Thank you Scraps, your prayers are welcome and reciprocated.
Cathy, I bet your clothes will be fun to wash.I always think "Oh no! more laundry."That makes me think of something I read once about getting old. It said, you know when you are old when you bend over to tie your shoe or pick something up and you find other things to do while you are down there just to avoid bending over again. I catch myself doing that all the time now since I have so much back trouble. I would not bend over to pick up cash unless it was over 5 dollars. My daughter could find enough change in the floor to buy a tank of gas if she would sweep. I have been too busy for chores lately. Not to mention I am getting new house why clean this one. Wait and sweep it all out when we move just hope it does not take much longer or i am going to have to sweep. Love and prayers, scraps
Carrie here, reporting in the middle of the night - I suspect the constant insomnia is caused by an imbalance in my meds somewhere. Because the computer lives on DH's side of the bed, and because I need help to even get out of bed, I usually just read in bed all night. He works Sat and Sun 4am - 2pm so I do a lot of computer catching up then.
I was dxd with MS when I was 25 (which means I'd had all these weird symptoms for years) and back then, there was no way to treat it. I take ten pills every morning and ten again before bed, only five in the afternoon. Some of those are doubles of the same thing but none are vitamins, they're all prescriptions. They're ALL coping with one side effect or another of the $#*@! MS.
I have aides during the day and DH at night. I garden mostly by proxy, I guess, because I can't reach or I can't bend without falling or if I were able to get down how would I get back up? I've been using an electric wheelchair since 1994. My wheelchair gives me pain! so I'm more likely to stay in bed.
hey Carrie, I wish we could wipe out all this pain and find a cure for all of it. Since we can't it is a good thing we have computers now to have a link to the world around us. I have been up on the new house place most of the day sitting on golf cart and scratching in dirt with a hoe and planting flower seeeds. I can not stand long for the pain so I have several different stools that roll and my golf cart. I was in a wheelchair for a while but started getting epidurals for back pain and sent chair back. If I do not get out much I get very stiff so it helps to get out and do something each day. I use to go swim at indoor fitness place but could not afford to continue. That helped some but not enough to justify the exspense. So I ride my golf cart up the street to my new place and do yardwork. I have moved a lot of wild ferns from the woods on my golf cart. I can scoot down and sit on edge to dig them up with hand size shovel and sit them in box and go plant a few and go back to the woods and get a few more. I am blessed to be able to get about as well as I am now. It has been much worse at times. I take alot of meds but only 4 in a.m. and 7 in p.m. but that is more than enough then I take vitamins too. Today I found myself resting a moment and got to watching an inch worm climbing a flower stalk and I played with him awhile like a child. We have to enjoy the little things in life sometimes too. Well, I need to take a break now and stretch my back. Have a good weekend. Love and prayers, scraps
P.S. If I do not get on for a while later in summer it will be because we are turning house phone off and going to cell only for a while if money gets tight with hubs layed off from work. We are going to try to take a few weeks and finish house and then move. He may have to start traveling with other job if he gets it.
Good luck to your husband with new job, scraps!!! Your inch worm sounds lovely. I've got my fingers crossed for him (husband, not inchworm.)
Carrie I just pray there will be a new job he does not have one yet. With the economy like it is right now there is not alot of building going on. He is putting in applications online today and mailing resumes out. So keep those fingers crossed. have a good sunday. scraps
I usually do maximum one THING a day, like go to church, go to the dentist, go to visit my father, you know, one THING that takes effort a day. Yesterday I went to my daughter's concert and my High School Reunion, today I went to church and to my husband's concert! I'm EXHAUSTED!
The good thing about being on SSDI is they can't really take it away. I wasn't rich but I had nothing to lose so the economy has only affected my friends, my car insurance, stuff like that. Fingers are still crossed!!!
Hello from PlantiMcPlanter :) Also known as Jacki. I am a gardener with fibromyalgia. I've also got some problems with arthritis and nerve impingement in my spine. All things that work against me most of the time. I've had a terrible winter and am so thankful for the spring! I'm in the process of going off of one of my pain meds because I don't think it's working too good anymore and I'm tired of all the side effects. That's my current challenge. That and the fact I had way too much fun in Seattle over the weekend! LOL! So the next fews days will be on the down low...
It's nice you all know what I mean!
Hey Jacki, I know what you mean for sure. Even fun things hurt. Not just when we work hard. I am glad you had some fun because it means so much when you suffer all the time with pain and the meds that you take cause problems also. I had to go in the hospital a few years ago just to make a med change because the dr.s were worried it would be too taxing on me and I am so glad I was there because I stayed wide awake for 5 days before new meds kicked in. They began to worry about me having a heart attack because mice that stay awake that long in research will die. I hope you do not have as bad a time with it as I did. My meds were sleep meds so maybe that is worse.
Carrie, I hope you have an easy day tomorrow and wish you a very restful night. I hate I have no real power to go along with that wish. If I were a ginny in a bottle I would just do kind things for you all. I watched Extreme home makeover tonight and the guy had MS and was a veteran of the gulf war. The gulf war syndrome caused the MS and When I saw his wife having to pick him up and help him in bed and such I thought of you. I hate that you have to deal with that. I was always such a tomboy who would not dare let my 3 brothers or their friends see me as weak or girlie and now I can barely walk and have to get my brother to come over to help with things like raking and yard work. Hubby does not have time for that , well, before being layed off anyway. He may find himself having to do some yardwork around here now because he can't use that as an excuse. Anyway, I wanted you to know I was thinking of you. However, I will not embarrass myself by wearing that ginny costume for you even if I get the special gift giving power.
Welcome to our little family of fighters, Jacki. LOL, no I don't mean that we are a fighting family (though we have had disagreements at times)...I mean to refer to our common bond of all fighting some darned disease that has robbed us of something very precious. Either comfort or Independence or strength or something else that I cannot think of right now. I've got to get to bed right now, but wanted to welcome you and say how glad we are to have another person join us
Oh...BTW everybody...tomorrow is the hatching date for my back porch Bluebirds. So....Happy faces in the morning!! ^_^
Love & prayers,
Sheri
Welcome, welcome, Jacki! Sheri is right, we'd rather fight than quit. (Wasn't that a cigarette commercial?) I mean, we sort of do what it takes to get it done. I DID sleep well, thank you, and I would love to see you in your I Dream of Jeannie costume!
Show us pictures of your bluebird babies?
Thank you for the warm welcome. I want to see pics of the bluebird babies, too!
I just wantedto say hello to all my friends here and encourage you to lhave a good day. I am plugginh away here. We hve hasd rain for a few days which of course makes all my bones hurt and some places very painful. I would love to have one great day without any aches or pain. I know that many of you have even worse pain than I ...well, if I didn't wear pain patch medication I probablywould be in that boat...anyway it will get better one day in glory is what I liik forward to.
Sorry if I soumd rambling I just wanted to talk t my friends awhile. I hope this thread hasn't been lost.
Love and prayers,
Sheri
PS my Bluebirds have hatched got 5 of the 6 sofar and hoping that the other egg will hatch also. here's a picture.
A picture of the Momma for you. She was turning her eggs here just a few hours before they completed the arduous task of pecking out of their shells. . Bluebird of Happiness for you!!
What a nice way to start the day, thanks for posting the pics.
FYI - I have put a link to this website under the subject header of "Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain gardening" , encouraging anyone with chronic pain issues to join us. I just hated to think of any new members searching under those subjects amidst the hundreds of "tabs" like I did looking for groups that they could relate to.
that iwas how I found this wonderful group last year. It probably took me a good 3 months to find more than just a small handful of forums and learn how to navigate DavesGarden. LOL and I'm still learning.
Sheri
BlueBirdie~ Great pictures! Thank you for sharing them...
Woke up this morning to clear sunny skies. The weather report says it will get rainy again today but maybe they are wrong. Today I'm taking a day for me...coffee with my sister, trip to the library and puttering around the yard. All done very s-l-o-w-l-y....
I wish you all a better day, too. :)
Today is an exciting one for me, I'm resting up for a trip to the OB with my daughter, she's in her 9th month and they are doing an ultrasound to see where the baby is, I get to go along! Well, they know where the baby is, haha, but she might be breach.
Here is a quote that I keep on my bulletin board:
"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow." Mary Jean Iron
That is a lovely quote. i wonder who Mary Jane Iron is?
Hi Sheri, nice bluebirds, thank you for the pictures. I wonder how turning the eggs helps?
Cathy, tell your daughter May is a terrific month for a birthday!
Carrie, turning the eggs keeps them from sticking to the shell. My birthday is in May, too. I got the quote from my support group, I don't know if she has PBC or if it just meant so much for managing day to day that it was posted. Gentle Hugs everyone!
I'm a May birthday too!!
And boy do I feel OLD!!
Happy Birthday and Happy Mother's Day to all of us!
Hello everyone and I hope you are all having a good day. I love the birdie babies Birdie Blue. Thank Goodness humans do not have that many at once very often. I could not keep up with one much less five. I would not have mined having 5 if I had enough money to hire some helpers but I could not keep up. Did not know I had fibro when my 2 girls were babies. They are 10 years apart so my eldest helped alot with the baby or I would not have made it through it. Then I discovered I had fibro and understood my lack of energy. I worked with handicapped children all day and drove a handicapped schoolbus both ways. I got slower and slower and felt like the energizer bunny with the battery going down. Oh Well, I am a survivor. A slow one but a survivor none the less. I hope and pray you all have a good night with no pain and lots of good rest. I am hoping my prayer for you guys will come back at least 2 fold, HEhehe. I did not sleep well and was still wide awake at 2 am and hubby started making noise at 8:00am. Since he is layed off he is not letting me sleep late and that was always my best sleep when I had the whole bed and no snoring but my own. Good night, scraps
Oh, I'm with you there, Scraps. The best part of the night is after DH goes off to school or work and i can really sprawl, hog the covers, etc.
Speaking of snoring..I remember how loud my ex-husband sored, I think i used to wake him to turn over to stop.
When I stayed at my Mom's the 2 times last winter that I had my knee surgeries, I had to use ear plugs to sleep. the bedroom I on the front side of the house and thee street is no longer a dead end...as when I was a kid. It now is a "main road" cut thru that about 1/2 of the city uses. so loud I couldn't sleep with out the plugs. they are the kind that yo get if you ever have an MRI....little squishy plugs that you roll up and then when you stick it in your ear it blocks out anywhere from 30 - 70% of the noise. they were less than $5 for about a dozen and can be reused a # of times. Even just using one for the top ear if you are a side sleeper might help. They work so well that if my Momma would come to the door to call me she would need to walk up to the bed before I could hear..or touch me to wake me. Most pharmacies have them. O ran MRI place would probably give you a pair if you went in and asked.
I can't imagine sleeping with anybody after so many years of living alone. The cuddling would be nice, but the sleeping would be a challenge , I think........
Hope everybody has a good day and your energy holds out a little longer than usual and is pain free!
{{{{hugs}}}} Sheri
Hello everyone, I had a good day so I hope all of you have a great one tomorrow. I went fishing with my hubs. Did not catch but 3 fish but I really enjoyed all of the trees and nature going up river in the boat. Where we stopped to fish there was some wisteria vine still blooming some. It has about stopped in the neighborhood where we normally see it. I saw some big rocks I would have loved to bring home to go in my new yard and around flower beds but he would have thought I was nuts so I did not say anything. It would be my luck they would sink the boat. Reckon how many trips up river it would take hauling out 1 or 2 rocks at a time to go around 2 huge oak trees? Oh well, It is probably against the law anyway. But they were just going to fall in the river anyway. Of course, I forgot my camera too. I did enjoy the time alone with hubs anyway. Tomorrow I have to help plane the lumber for the cabinets and trim work in new house because my brother can not come help and my daughter has to work also. Pray for sunshine, big breezes, and pain relief for me. My oldest daughter is coming on Sunday to spend the day and I hope Mike will not expect me to stack lumber on Mother's day. I am afraid she might get her feelings hurt if I do not get to spend time with her but it has rained so much we have not been able to work up there this week. Maybe he will be sweet and give me the day off. The girls both asked what I wanted for Mother's day and I said a flower I can plant in my yard, they can spend only a dollar or 2 and get one of whatever kind they wish for me to have. But I want it to be one that will come back year after year. I hate for them to give fresh ones that only last a week. Well, I am rambling again, Goodnight, Love and prayers for all of you, Scraps
Well, I was in bed but I'm back in the recliner. I really don't like Mother's Day, show me you love me anytime when the mood strikes. Pick up that rock along the road because you know I like rocks. Tell me something you remember from when you were little that you really liked. Come on your lunch hour for lunch a time or two. Write I love you in the dirt on my car, or wash it without me asking. I still have the notes my daughter put in my luggage when I went on my first trip without all the kids, telling me to have a good time and to remember to change my underwear, and that she would miss me. She was 12 and I treasure those notes. Cut flowers are nice if they came from the yard, I agree, buy me a small daisy plant so I can have it forever.
I like laboring kids for mothers day! Clean out the containers, sweep the patio, oil the not-teak furniture. Plus chocolate - DH already got that. When I was married to their father, in the bad old days, there was no Mothers Day. (we didn't celebrate it at least.) So even though this DH isn't the father of my kids, he's a father, and he knows about being a parent.
Yesterday, for instance, I took my 15 y.o. to the MD for her asthma. At 5:30 pm! Rush hour! He put her on steroids - I hope she doesn't turn into a monster. I'm gonna try to get back to sleep....
Have a special day to all of my friends here. I pray for a day with out pain or at least a better day than usual and especially for some special moment that sticks out just for your that makes you smile inside.
Heres a little Mother that I found beside my back porch yesterday. look closely now!!! I know I had to...i nearly began to remove the honeysuckle vine that I had sprayed dead before I noticed babies in the nest. She is still brooding 2 eggs!!
^_^ smile ^_^ You're (not) on Candid Camera!! ( I think many of you out there remember that show)
Love and prayers, Sheri
Happy Birthday, Sheri!
Thank you! It has been too!!!
That is wonderful. What a gift a happy day is!