Do I have any hobbies or interests?

Image by Strikkelise via Flickr

In completing my continuing disability review paperwork for Social Security, I admit I was struck by the absurdity of some of the questions. Like this one: Do you have hobbies and interests? At first glance, I couldn't imagine answering NO to this question. I mean, come one, I am still alive and engaged in life. Hobbies and interests comprise the 'fun stuff' I do every day that keep me feeling like life is still worth living, even if I can't do all the things I used to be able to do.

Then I thought, 'Wait a minute, is this a trick question where they are going to say I could turn my hobbies into a job and no longer be eligible for benefits?' Yes, being on disability makes me feel vulnerable and a bit paranoid that at any moment my benefits could be taken away. I know this is probably irrational thinking on my part, but when you have FIBROMYALGIA, the mystery illness that not everyone believes exists, it seems I spend a lot of time explaining I am disabled even if I don't look sick.

So I answered the question with a YES and then got real with myself when answering the second part of the question: Please describe what they are and how much time you spend doing them. Here is my answer:

• bird watching in my backyard (a few minutes each day)
• container gardening (1 to 1 1/2 hrs/week in the Spring/Summer)
• watching nature and science shows on PBS (2-4 hours a week)
• loom knitting (30 minutes/week in Fall/Winter)
• reading (about 1 book a month)
• writing--made possible by Dragon Naturally Speaking software on my computer (15 to 30 minutes a day)
• teaching my dog tricks (5-10 minutes a day)

Sadly, it's not the list I would have written six years ago. Heck, this isn't the life I had six years ago. Yet, as I review this list now, I think I actually forgot to add a few other fun things I do on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. I guess my excuse is that completing this paperwork when I had a cold made it difficult to think.

I hope the reviewer can see that I am trying my best to adjust to this new life with chronic illness by developing new, fibro-friendly interests and hobbies. Conversely, just because I have interests and hobbies doesn't mean I can work. Most of all, completing this task made me acknowledge once again that I would so much rather be healthy and working than completing pages of paperwork detailing how my life has changed and is now filled with much less...

Funny, but they don't ask a question that would get them this kind of response on their forms.

My Routine: Spending Time in the Garden

Image by yuankuei via Flickr

Selena, Selena, so fibro-friendly,
How does your garden grow?
With radish, pepper, tomato
And green bean all in a row.

One of the good things to come out of the six weeks I spent at the Cedars-Sinai Chronic Pain and Fibromyalgia Program in 2007 is my container garden. I was challenged to turn my interest in gardening into a fibro-friendly activity and gardening in containers fit the bill. I can tend my garden from a seated position, with minimum reaching, lifting, digging or bending. I have also outfitted my containers with a soaker hose system; I purchased the parts for the system I created on eBay (a fibro-friendly way to shop.) My watering set-up is automated, attached to a DIG Irrigation Products battery operated hose water controller which is programmable for multiple days of the week and watering duration.

Unfortunately, my gardening routine seems to get a late start each year; seeds that can be started between April and June inevitably are planted in June. It seems that Spring is often a time for flare-ups, infections and calamities---last year I broke my foot in March, this year I caught the flu and developed a persistent sinus infection starting at the end of April and lasting a whole month. So if I were to change one or two things with my garden routine, it would be to figure out a way to better survive Spring physically so I can start planting earlier.

My Lightweight Barrel Containers
-Established in 2007, My First Year of Container Gardening

(click on any picture to enlarge)



The BIG Container from Naturalyards
-circa 2008 and Built to Last 30 Years!

(click on any picture to enlarge)




My garden wish list includes another large container from Naturalyards. I was able to order an exact size that perfectly fit the space I designated for the container. This container was wonderfully easy to put together---tool free and like stacking Legos. Robert helped me put my Naturalyards container together in about 1/2 hour and it will last for a long, long time thanks to the Port Orford cedar used in its construction. I highly recommend Naturalyards: their customer service was excellent and shipping via FedEx is included in the price of the container.

Surprisingly, time in the garden has turned me into somewhat of a novice bird watcher as well. Among the birds I have seen: the black Phoebe, the wrentit, the red-winged blackbird, the red-tailed hawk, Anna's hummingbird, Stellar's Jay, the lesser goldfinch and our local flock of green parrots.

As you can tell from my impassioned description, I wholly enjoy my garden routine.

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