I'm not usually a "stressy" person, but we have just moved (for the 17th time!!) The move was from a large appartment to a small retirement flat.
You 'd think after 17 times we'd be used to it - BUT that was before PMR. Now I know what stress is!! 5 days after move we both went down with flu, have now had symptoms for 3 weeks. Our new home looks like an over full garage. We just haven't the strength to DO anything! Not much to do with PMR - just wanted a bit of sympathy from someone!!!
ugh. my sympathies. just the thought of moving makes me want to cry. I suggest just making the bed, grabbing a glass something warm and just going to bed. no need t unpack quickly. take your time. our last move took me nearly a year to get all the boxe out of the house-seriously.
sending good thoughts your way.
You poor thing. I am so sorry you feel so down. Where abouts are you? Perhaps someone could help out. I live in the South of England.
xx
I live in Germany but our daughter lives only 1 km away, so we have help if needed. Not much she can do though, everythng needs to be sorted out, and we have soooo much! We'll cope when we get rid of this blasted flu. Thanks for your kind thoughts.
Oh Constance - I really can sympathise - been there, done that and it's enough to make you never ever move again isn't it!!!!
We sold our big house to start the process of retirement but it was just as the market crashed - had it been on the market 3 months earlier we would have had a good 50K more - and all of it, as it was we part exchanged for a smaller house and money. It's fine, we lived in it for several months and it is let - but it was just a few weeks after we moved that the PMR that had been livable with for 5 years (without pred) went mad. And I had a transient global amnesia (google it) at the same time. So a bright consultant decided I might have epilepsy, no driving. But at least a TGA doesn't hurt and lasts only a few hours not like flu!!!
If I were closer I really would come and help - except I'd really rather NOT catch your flu! I do hope you start to feel a bit more human soon. Are you up to eating yet? Is there a local restaurant that will deliver?
Get well very soon - I thought you had been very quiet.
And there isn't anything in TV at present is there - Fasching, Fasching or Fasching. Not the sort of thing to watch when you feel delicate.
How kind! Not eating, but food and help abundant, thanks to daughter. She has started cookng for 4 and brings all left-overs round regularly. Also, now being in a town, lots of restaurants that will deliver. Also an over full deep freeze and a microwave, so little chance of us dying of starvation. We force ourselves to eat, but can only manage very small portions. We'll get there!
One way to deal with pred-weight ;-)
the nice thing about stress and chaos and change and health .... is it can only get better.
The flu will fly away. The boxes will magically empty themselves, the contents arranged in neat and tidy rows. The excess discarded without a care. There won't be a power cut but eating will empty the freezer. If you like it empty don't fill it up. Put a padlock on the lid. Not shopping has its attractions. Who needs all the glitz and worry of deciding what brand of milk to buy?
Don't bother making the bed. Just lie in it. It will only need making again tomorrow.
Relax. Go with the flow. Its amazing how long I can go saying "I'll cut the grass tomorrow". At least your boxes aren't growing any bigger or the mess any messier.
Not sure if this is the sort of sympathy you want but its all I've got .....:-)
"the flu will fly away" - doesn't feel like a flight to us!!! How long does flu last, does anyone know? "excess discarded without a care" - " what a thought, how often have you downsized? If that isn't impertinent!
"put a padlock on the lid of the deep freeze". Good idea!
Thanks for tips and sympathy.
Think his shingles is causing hallucinations!!!!!!!!
Flu probably lasts a couple of weeks like a cold. How long the post viral "bleugh" lasts is another question, Especially since your immune system is a bit rubbish anyway. Look on it as a longhaul flight with Ryanair...
Last sentence - God forbid!!
Love it....our trip to Girona is enough!!
good question about the downsizing - last time we moved house we sorted out all our books. We proudly gave 3 to the book exchange and took 37 boxes with us so had to build bookshelves ..... we're experts!
We "downsized" to a self contained 4m x 2m box on 4wd wheels for 3 years of driving from Malaysia to Scotland and back via China, Scandinavia and Morocco, etc. The PMR caught up with me in Nepal on the way home so was undiagnosed for a few months until we reached Aus. You probably heard the screams.
Most nomads move back and forth in a group to areas they've been to previously. We elected for constant new places independently. Almost daily moving, wondering where to camp, different languages, potable water, food labels unreadable on unrecognisable food, is that pump really for diesel, wondering what the next mechanical or electrical problem is, the cookers broken and spare parts are 1,000km away, a wheel nearly fell off in Spain, the mozzies are biting, visas, borders, money, police, medical, what's Russian for "I need a sim card with internet on my phone". NW Mongolia before we found a welder was 10 km/hr for three days passing one vehicle per day and "we may not get to Europe". All par for the course.
But met the most wonderful people and saw the most fascinating places. Every day an adventure. Biggest achievement is we are still talking to each other .....
How to take everything we needed and nothing we didn't. I think that's what downsizing is.
Trust me (sounds like a pollie). Flu does fly away. And I'm certain the PMR does eventually. The alternative doesn't warrant thinking about. Even if it never goes away knowing it will makes a huge difference. Just a bit of life's roller coaster.
Not sure about the boxes emptying themselves though. Might need a bit of help when you finally get round to it. In the meantime try kicking them. They don't kick back. The pressure to tidy up is in the head. Do what you can when you can, not what you think you should, or worse, what someone else thinks you should. And it somehow all gets done eventually. It really does. One step at a time. And then there's something else to do (bother, I thought I was finished after this task).
Sorry if the above reads like something from Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen. I'm really not into "my problems are bigger than yours". I think I'm much better off than most and do have lots of real sympathy for you.
I guess just trying to create a bit of "been there done that" cred. Its ok to stop. Nothing bad will happen. Paddle your canoe at your own pace. With the river not against it.
Oops! I forgot about cleaning the snow off the windscreen with bare feet in the Urals! Eh it were tuf!
"The pressure to tidy up is in the head" - man after my own heart, would you like to call by and convince my other half? He's a bit conventional...
We were nomads for a awhile - went to uni in Dundee, moved to london (mercifully that didn't last long), back to Dundee, moved to Germany, back to Dundee, moved to the north of England - progressed to northern Italy. Won't be going back to Dundee.
Ignore the boxes for a couple of years - you then can say you managed without anything in them so they might as well be chucked/recycled/sent to the charity shop. 
Constance, you're not going to like what I'm going to say but I'm going to say it anyway, bugger the bloody boxes. We moved to our new house 4 years ago and we still haven't emptied half the boxes. The house requires cosmetic decorating, well I've only just started on one of the bedrooms. Do I care a cow, no I don't. Today I put a wash load in the washing machine then headed off to the tennis court. I haven't played tennis since onset of PMR symptoms and it was great. I was so slow about the court and I gave almost no shot strength but I felt fantastic. I'm for enjoying myself not domestic chores. And also your flu will take longer to "fly" away if you're stressing out. This advise us from one little English girl whose dearly departed German mother would be raising her eye brows and tutting away furiously with my advise. All the best, christina
Must be something.!!!
2 capsules, 1 big white tablet, 1 small white tablet, 1 goldilocks white tablet, 1 yucky brown tablet, with enough cholrine in the tap water to kill anything remaining 'cos the fridge with the filtered water is so far away I've forgotten what I went for by the time I get there.
And that's just for breakfast with yoghurt.
Surely all of them can't be doing me good .......... but some of them must ...
Would have loved a couple of years as a nomad. Too many commitments and a husband who is happier at home - have to drag him on holiday!!
I do try to ignore the pile, but as I look at it, it grows!! Last time we moved we had 80 odd boxes, we "sorted out" and got down to 50 - so some improvement. But that was pre PMR.
Perhaps I will try kicking them!! Trouble is, we were not only leaving a large appartment, we had a spare bedrom, a big cellar and a large garage - none if which we now have. What made us downsize? Money! Property prices have risen drastically here in this part of Germany and we thought we'd better move before things got worse.
Not moaning - well, not much! We've had a very good life, but time to settle down.
I wish I could bugger the boxes. But, you know, I don't think you know what downsizing really means. "Just used one of the bedrooms" - we've only got
ONE! And you probably have a garage, and perhaps an attic? We have neither here. We also had a large cellar.
Don't mean to moan, but moving for the first time with PMR is something I don't want to experience again (wouldn't have been so bad, I don't think, if we hadn't gone down with a very aggressive flu).
Enough of this self pity. Thanks for all your thoughts. I do appreciate them.
Lf C
Life in a flat without a garage or at least a cellar doesn't bear contemplation!!! We moved from a 9 room house with an enormous double garage to a 2 up 2 down and no garage. That isn't entirely true: there was a garage but when we removed the roof to knock it down it all fell over as it had no foundations, it was just bricks on a concrete base! Thank goodness we'd never put the car in it! Couldn't use it for storage - the roof was totally rotten and leaked.
Coming here was a doddle - garage with a door in the basement, and a cellar and a BIG balcony. But we'd downsized twice in a few years and fed the charity shops and the tip well!
Moving is never easy or fun - don't care what anyone says and we've done it a few times, going up and down the sizes in the process but none of the moves, even international, compared in horrors with the one I did just as the PMR went mad and I had had a TGA as well. I just sat and looked at the boxes and wept.