How I Homestead with Fibromyalgia

I have debated many times about how and when I would share this information on this blog. First of all, I’m a pretty private person and it’s hard to plan to share this with the world. But since May is Fibromyalgia Awareness month and May 12th is International Fibromyalgia awareness day, I figured it would be a great day to share my story.

I know there are many people out there who are struggling with the same or similar illnesses with their own struggles who are wondering if they can start homesteading. My hope for this post is to give you some ideas on how to homestead with fibromyalgia if you have a passion to learn homesteading and gardening. Having a chronic illness (like fibromyalgia) doesn’t necessarily need to stop you.

How I Homestead with Fibromyalgia (a Chronic Illness)

About two years ago I was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. When I say “finally diagnosed” that is because Fibro is a very difficult condition to diagnose as it mimics the symptoms of several different conditions and doesn’t have any specific “test” to diagnose it. For myself, I was periodically dealing with intense bouts of pain, anxiety, brain fog/cognitive dysfunction, fatigue, vertigo, gastrointestinal problems, numbness, tingling and pain in my extremities, intense muscle twitches and various types of migraines. Like I say, these were just my own symptoms but fibromyalgia can have literally hundreds of symptoms.

Now, you might be wondering,

What is Fibromyalgia?

I’m going to quote the Mayo Clinic’s explanation here:

“Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues. Researchers believe that fibromyalgia amplifies painful sensations by affecting the way your brain and spinal cord process painful and non painful signals.

Symptoms often begin after an event, such as physical trauma, surgery, infection or significant psychological stress. In other cases, symptoms gradually accumulate over time with no single triggering event.

Women are more likely to develop fibromyalgia than are men. Many people who have fibromyalgia also have tension headaches, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety and depression.

While there is no cure for fibromyalgia, a variety of medications can help control symptoms. Exercise, relaxation and stress-reduction measures also may help.”

To Read More about Fibromyalgia and it’s many symptoms you can read this article on Healthline.

More Fibromyalgia resources:

What Does Chronic Illness have to do with Homesteading?

Homesteading is made up of so many different activities that require both physical and mental strength. Therefore, many homesteading activities can be extra difficult when you are challenged with a chronic illness such as fibromyalgia. Now, that isn’t to say it can’t be done, it just means you may need to do certain things differently.

Let’s take gardening as an example, gardening can be somewhat cyclical and definitely seasonal so there are certain times of the year when it can be challenging.

Springtime is when there is a lot of physical labour like hauling wheelbarrow loads of compost around or carrying heavy flats of potted plants out to be transplanted. There’s sometimes digging and raking and hoeing of weeds and bending down to plant things.

In the summer, there are moving hoses around and stooping down to start harvesting crops. And then we move into the fall where there is more raking and hoeing and wheelbarrowing and carrying big baskets and boxes of produce and big pumpkins etc. There is clean up and hauling mulch to put on beds before winter and planting garlic.

Even in the winter, there isn’t much of a break because mentally, you are thinking and planning and then before you know it, the planting season begins again.

Then there is all the harvesting and food preserving to think of as well. All the canning, freezing, dehydrating etc to preserve all that hard work!

All of these physical and mental exertions take a toll on anyone’s body and mind but when you have a chronic illness these are extra considerations.

raised beds are great for gardening with fibromyalgia — This size raised bed would be a great height for a person with mobility issues.

Some ways we are looking at to mitigate my struggles of chronic pain in the garden and homestead are:

Building high raised beds in the garden to limit the amount of crouching, bending, lifting, tilling etc.
Investing in better irrigation techniques like soaker hoses etc instead of hauling around hoses and sprinklers.
Having a garden stool that I can sit on and weed, rather than kneeling and crouching.
Always wearing a hat and bringing a water bottle, especially on hot, sunny days.
Utilizing less intensive food preservation methods like freezing and fermenting and dehydrating. I’d love to someday try out a home freeze dryer as I hear they are amazing and simple.

If you would like some more ideas for accessible gardening techniques, check out this HGTV article.

A lot of people use “The Spoon Theory” as a way of explaining how the idea of limited energy and resources works.

As you can see, adding homesteading activities on to “normal” daily activities can be a real challenge.

The big payoff of all that effort in gardening and other homesteading pursuits like animal husbandry, is of course the amazing produce and food you will have that is fresh, organic, full of good vitamins and minerals because it didn’t travel a long distance or sit in a store for a long time. And what is one of the major helpers of feeling better with a chronic illness? Good nutrition!

My husband Pat with some massive bok choy.

“The perfect tomato” grown in my homestead garden.

Another coping factor of chronic illness is keeping stress levels down. Being out in the garden or hanging out with animals, in the fresh air and sun and dirt are wonderfully meditative and stress relieving.

What about caring for animals?

One of my biggest dreams is to one day have a dairy cow. I’d love to have lots of fresh milk and cream on hand and be able to make fresh butter and cheeses etc. But one thing that holds me back, is the amount of work in caring for a large animal like that.

For myself, I have fibro issues with my hands and arms being periodically swollen and numb and sometimes swollen and throbbing, so milking a cow daily would be a real challenge. My husband works as a firefighter and we have 3 teenagers with very busy lives of school and work so making sure an animal is milked consistently two times a day would be a real big challenge.

Chickens or at least laying hens are a great animal to have on a small homestead such as ours and are very easy to care for so they are fantastic to have around. Plus their eggs are nutritionally rich, supplying almost every nutrient you need.

They are useful sources of some of the hard to get nutrients like vitamins D and B12 as well as the mineral iodine. Eggs are regarded as a ‘complete’ source of protein as they contain all nine essential amino acids, which we must obtain from our diet.

As for meat chickens, we have had deals in the past with my dad where he grows them and then my family and my sister’s family all go over to his place and spend a day butchering all the birds together. When we do that day, I can usually get through that day fine, but I am down and out and exhausted and in pain for a few days after. But I know it will be worth it as we usually have delicious home grown chicken in our freezer for a year.

I’ve been slowly looking into other small animals like rabbits, smaller dwarf goats etc. but so far haven’t made the commitment to getting them yet. The last few years I have been working on climbing the small corporate ladder at my day job (in a financial institution) to the level where I am able to work from home at least part of the time. Working from home would allow me more time and energy to pursue my interests in homesteading more.

How do I homestead with fibromyalgia?

The biggest reason I am able to do any part of homesteading is, I know am very lucky and very blessed to have a wonderful family and friends who are willing to help!

This whole homesteading venture is a family effort, my husband and kids help with any heavy lifting, hauling wheelbarrow loads of compost and mulch and occasionally running the rototiller when needed. My eldest daughter finds weeding the garden meditative so she is willing most times I ask, although she is already 19 and won’t be around forever. Our middle daughter is 17 and helps in any and every way she can when she is not at school or at one of her three jobs. Our youngest son is 14 and it is really nice that he is adult size and can help out more with the heavy lifting/labour.

Our son Gabe using the broad fork to loosen up the soil in the garden.

Even our parents are willing to help out as much as they can when they aren’t busy with their own properties.

I honestly feel like I’m still on a journey of discovering what are the best activities of homesteading with the best payoff and least backlash of pain. But, I know I have many years to figure this all out and although sometimes I just want things done right away, I do have patience in slowly working on and figuring things out.

I hope this has helped you on your homesteading journey with a chronic illness such as fibromyalgia. Just remember that everyone experiences this differently and at different levels of pain and symptoms so take it slow, try one thing at a time and utilize all resources and help available to you. And don’t be too hard on yourself if you can’t do “all the things”, just do what you can, what makes you happy and what doesn’t put you into too much pain.

I’d love to hear your stories of homesteading with a chronic illness and ways you have adapted your ways of doing things to mitigate pain. Feel free to comment below!

How I Homestead with Fibromyalgia