My wife was just diagnosed, and we are moving. Any advice is most welcome.

December 29, 2007

I need to be brief because of all the work we need to do to move on January 7th

into senior housing. This is major major stress and my wife, who is 55 and

formally quite energetic, was just diagnosed with Fibro by an allergist. We are

relieved to finally have some kind of diagnosis, but she is feeling overwhelmed

and exhausted by the move, and of course, there is all the pain. We have to

pare down a small house's worth of stuff to fit into a 1 bedroom condo. It's a

lovely green building and it's worth all of this, but I am worried that Barbara

(I call her Babs to amuse and annoy her. ) is just going to go over some edge

with all of this.

A brief tragic aside. My brilliant wife was friends with Benazir Bhutto at

Harvard, even went to Pakistan with her to tour the country. The assassination

has caused her greater sadness than she ever anticipated. It's all over the

news, even NPR. She just has to feel what she feels, I know. It's just very

disturbing.

We have people helping us and will have professional packers and movers but are

not anywhere where we thought we'd be by now and have so little time. The

sorting through old things and old memories is so much harder than we thought it

would be, as is the selling. We posted a holiday sale on Craigslist and a moving

sale and have sold very little. We have given away big bags of stuff and will

give away much more. I'm willing to get a storage unit, but Barbara would much

prefer to sell the things we no longer need and have a fresh start.

What I know about Fibro: the best things to do are to get regular exercise and

to get help to get restorative sleep. It sounds like people use all kinds of

different methods and substances to control their pain. When there is time, I

will read through all the posts and find out about all of this for my wife.

For now, any advice or suggestions about how Barbara can manage this awful

stress, which is exacerbating the pain, and/or any tips about pain management

for the short term are most welcome, as are any thoughts about us making it

through this move with our sanity intact or about selling antique and vintage

furniture and collectibles are equally welcome and please write to me privately

if this is off topic.

Bless you all,

Charlie

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