In June my family and I said goodbye to our Central Florida home of 6 years and moved 1,232 miles away to Upstate New York.
This was a decision we’d been thinking about for a few years.
So between February and June of this year, we planned to be out of the house by the end of June when our rental lease was up.
This past Thursday we celebrated 3 weeks in the new house.
Months ago I was a little more than a little worried about how my body would react to all this change and new.
Moving is daunting for anyone, so I knew moving with Fibro would throw my body into a tailspin.
I’ve moved before – as a child and an adult (with Fibro) – and the experience can be challenging.
Well, that hasn’t been the case for me this time around. I was wrong.
I was wrong and I’m so pleased.
Now that we’re here, I’m a little more than a little surprised at how my body is not reacting to all this change and new.
Is it possible to move – and move a big move – and do it with minimal flares? Or without flares completely?
From my experience, it is, and I’d like to share it with you. I hope it gives you hope.
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Why we decided to move
First, let me give you a bit of background. My husband and I talked about ditching Florida for years.
I hesitated for a while – I’ve only ever lived across the Sunshine State. A lot of my mom’s family is here. Our friends are here. My stepdaughter and her fiance are local. We had reasons to stay.
But then our rent kept going up, and up, and up. Our busy, 45-mile-per-hour street (which we dubbed the Racetrack) was obnoxiously loud. And that city was (is) an angry, crazy little city to drive and live in. I finally said okay, let’s go when we’re ready. I was also totally over the heat.
It turns out ready meant after my car accident. So after about 13 months from that day to settlement, we started officially planning for our big move.
We had about 4 months to prepare and leave before we had to be out. Our rental lease was set to renew in July, so we had to be out by June 30th.
My pain levels before the move
I felt “normal” before the move. Understandably stressed, but my body didn’t feel run down until the last two days or so.
For months my pain levels steadily improved as I did consistent yoga and 10-minute workouts. Sometimes stress would make my hips tight, but that’s pretty common regardless of Fibromyalgia.
Because we didn’t know where to move very early in our home-buying process. We didn’t have a city, let alone a state picked out yet.
New York and Maine were top options, along with Washington and Colorado.
But back to my pain levels before the move: we didn’t know where we wanted to live, so on top of looking for a house and jumping through the home loan hoops, I (we, I didn’t do it alone let me be clear! 🙂 ) had to get rid of and pack so much shit.
My body was tired and stressed, yet my pain never reached a flare level.
This would have been extremely unusual years ago when a simple 20-minute car ride sent me into pain overdrive. Or even last year.
But nope, I survived packing and the pre-moving process relatively (or shall as say as normal for Fibromyalgia) pain-free.
The move and my pain levels
The day we started was rough because I way over packed (like 5 new boxes of cereal plus opened bags of my beloved baking flours plus way more shit; I wanted to be prepared for when we got in the house and if we did not receive our moving truck in time – now I lol), and we had a lot of things to pack up in the days leading up to our leaving.
Whoops – and we had already sent the moving truck packed to the brim away to New York.
We had friends and family come to say their goodbyes, I cooked and made cookies for everyone one last time, and I cleaned.
I did waaay overdo it then, and the day before and the day we left were probably my most physically painful days out of the entire trip.
Maybe my body was mirroring how I felt. So excited for what was to come, yet steeped in guilt over money spent and lost and leaving the walls our son took his first steps in.
Wade is really, really nostalgic and a sensitive kid with a wicked sharp memory, so having to manage his emotions when I was drained of mine was way outside my capacity.
And he did (and is still doing) really well with this change. I’m so proud of him.
But how crazy is it that my body still didn’t throw itself into a flare after all that? My muscles were sore and my legs felt like that radiating achy pain turned up a few notches, but none of it was unbearable.
I’ll take leg pain over scalp pain any day. ANY DAY.
18+ hour car ride
Oh, yeah, I want to talk about the car ride up. I was surprisingly okay!
I was really worried that my hips would be screaming after 30 minutes (and they kind of were the first day, but again, very stressful) but the screaming was minimal. I made sure to stretch (even if for two minutes) before leaving and took CBD and ibuprofen every morning and I think that helped.
Keeping up with my workouts (love Lauren Fitter on YT) before the move kept my pain down by loosening and strengthening my hips too.
You know that feeling when you anticipate something to be SUPER BAD and it’s not?
Yeah, a delightful surprise that kept giving every day – and we were on the road for about a week, though we did stay an extra day at my in-laws and had to stay an extra day in a hotel close to our new home.
My husband drove the entirety of the trip (though he’ll never drive through the Blue Ridge Mountain scenic route ever again), so I did have flexibility in how I sat which helped my hips not get so tight.
We also rotated using a neck and back heating pad, which probably saved my ass. It plugged into the cigarette lighter.
I also made sure to wear my comfiest clothes, namely loose jumpers (this one is my staple; got ‘em in green and black)
We logged about 4-5 hours every day. Any longer was too much for all of us.
My pain levels after the move
I’ve gotta be honest, I’m half still waiting for a ginormous flare to smack me in the face, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. It would have by now.
I know flares come and go like the fucking breeze, but my body feels different. Maybe my mind is different (constantly evolving my growth mindset) and that’s lending to less stress leading to decreased pain. I don’t know.
But I’m so, so surprised. Half scared to type this and curse myself, but so delighted that I’m okay. More okay than I’ve ever been. I’m good, actually.
I moved across the country and I did it without agonizing pain.
I moved 1,232 miles across the country without agonizing pain.
How is that possible?
A couple of years ago I would have cackled at that. No way, can’t even do 15 minutes in a car or wear fucking pants like a normal person.
I just couldn’t do things like that then, and hardly saw any light at the end of the tunnel.
But now I see more light is opening at the end of my tunnel. (Haha, that felt so strange to write but we’re gonna go with it).
I can do things I didn’t think my Fibromyalgia would allow me to do.
I mean, I’ve had fallouts over my lack of capability thanks to FM.
But now I can do more things like my old self used to.
Maybe that’ll change, but for now, I’m grateful.
And I’m hopeful that my quality of life with Fibromyalgia will only continue to increase.
My takeaway
Moving with Fibromyalgia turned out to be manageable for me.
I did it!
I was hesitant towards change, fearful of 18+ hour car rides, and worried about how the intense stress of moving would uptick my Fibromyalgia symptoms.
I mean – we moved over 1200 miles away – and yet my pain never reached flare levels, never went into overdrive as I anticipated.
Still fucking hurt at times, but it was nothing like I imagined.
What the fuck? Wow. WOW!
I’m as thankful as I am surprised.
I wonder, how better can I feel from here?
Or was this a fluke?
I don’t know, but this experience has given me hope for my future.
I hope it gives you hope about yours, too.
Have you ever had a life changing event happen while having Fibro (whether it was your choice or not)? I’d love to read your response below.
