January 28, 2009

Sherri Blackinton
Diagnosed: 2001
Residence: Arizona

Sherri Blackinton and her husband moved into their new house in September 2008. Though the two houses are just seven miles apart, the move was incredibly disorienting for Sherri, who felt challenged to manage her fibromyalgia symptoms and simultaneously make the enormous adjustment to a new neighborhood.

Q. What prompted you and your husband to move?
A. Finances. The house we moved into was our rental home and it was easier to rent out than the home that we had lived in for 18 years. The rental home had to have somebody in it and paying the bills.

Q. How much time did you have to move from one house to the other?
A. We found out around the eighteenth of August that we had to move and we were totally in the new house by the tenth of September.

Q. Were you able to get some things done beforehand?
A. Just a few things. First I packed the things that I thought were important to me first, which were my wine collection and my NASCAR collection.

Q. How long did it take you to get your whole house packed up?
A. About three weeks total. I did most of the packing and my mother-in-law came down for four days to help. My niece helped out at night. And my husband, between doing everything else, would pick up a box and bring it over to the new house. At least we had access to the new house, which make it easier to be able to come over here and do a few things at a time.

Q. How did you handle the packing?
A. I probably did 20 minutes at a time and then took about a 20-30 minute break. It was an all-day, all-night event. Every time I walked by something, I would just throw it in a box. And everything that was not important would go into another pile to be dealt with later.

Q. What was the biggest challenge of the move?
A. The hardest part was adjusting to the new environment. The new house has all-ceramic floors, and the old house was smaller with more carpet. Everything just seems backwards here. I will be honest with you; even today I wake up crying because something isn’t easy for me to do. I have to learn all over again where everything is. I get lost in my own neighborhood because I don’t know which street leads where, which I did not take well at all. I also fell the first night at the new house, which did not help me to start off on the right foot. That made it even more difficult to be able to do anything.

Q. How did you reduce the chance for fibro flares?
A. Actually, I had a big flare-up and an outburst of emotions which made everyone realize that it was too much and that I needed people to pitch in and help. My family realized that I needed help, so my sister and parents jumped right in and started doing things that I needed help with. That was also hard for me because I felt that I should be able to do the things that they were helping me with. I had a bigger struggle with myself accepting my disability. I kept things to myself. I’m not sure why I did that, but I now know that I don’t have to do that anymore. This experience made me have to admit what I could not do and ask for help.

Q. What has helped you to adapt to your new environment?
A. Trying to change my own attitude and relying on my own support group. They were always there for me. I felt that my doctor and my family started to understand me better, which helped me adjust to the new environment as well. I founded and lead a support group in Phoenix, but I just recently turned the leadership over to one of the other members who is better at keeping the support group running,. My group helped me through my fibro flare-ups and depression while moving, and even still today they call or email me to see if I need anything.

Q. Have you made some progress in your new home?
A. Yes, I feel much more comfortable. Even today I rearranged some of the furniture and it made me feel like it was my home. Eventually, I do feel like I will feel at home here. My husband has done a lot for me, as well, to help me feel more at home here.

Q. What moving advice do you have for others with fibromyalgia?
A. Plan. If you can’t plan it, then accept what you can’t do. It helped to not hide my inabilities. If something was too heavy I would ask someone to help me out. I am not so embarrassed anymore when I need to ask for help. I think that is the biggest thing I got out of this experience. I never realized before that I was hiding what I needed help with.

Do you have a tip, comment or suggestion for Sherri? Leave her an online message at CarePages. Visit www.carepages.com/fmaware and type in Sherri Blackinton in the search window.