What does it mean?

So how does Fibromyalgia affect homeschooling?  Many people probably think it doesn't.  So you're tired?  Who isn't?  So you have pain?  Who doesn't?  That's just life.  What they don't realize is the price someone with Fibro pays for doing certain things.

One incident comes readily to mind.  I think this was one of those times when a lightbulb went on over my husband's head:  Jen does have limitations.  A few years ago, my husband wanted help moving our picnic table.  Not just a little bit, but all the way across our fairly sizable yard.  To his constant irritation, I made him pause often, but we got there.  By the time we were across, my finger hurt.  No big deal, I hurt a lot, right?  Well, it turned out that my whole finger swelled up.  It stayed swollen for a while.  There was no obvious injury to it while we were moving the table, it was just too much.  So, swelling in finger goes down.  That's the end of it, right?  So that's not so bad, right? 
No, no.  It didn't end for over a year.  Because I have Fibromyalgia, when something like that happens to me I feel it for a loooong time.  Not only did that finger hurt, but the rest of my fingers had sympathy pain.  I don't pretend to understand it, I just report it.  My fingers ached nearly every day.

So what does this mean to homeschooling?  It means that maybe today, I'd better sit out of dance so I can go for that walk later.  It means that since I didn't sit out of dance, I am limping after the walk today.  For some, it means no walk at all.  The trouble is, we can't not go for the walk, or the dance, or any number of hundreds of things.  As homeschoolers, we feel that push to get our kids out there to do the things kids need to do.  That's our job, our responsibility.  I know that every parent feels that, but if the child goes to school, at least one could feel that the kid isn't missing out on life.  So what happens when we can't do these things?  Guilt, guilt and more guilt.  We feel guilty if we don't participate.  We feel guilty if we ask someone for help.  I have another choice.  I can go ahead, do it, and suffer.  But for some, even that is not an option.  And part of the trouble is that there is so much variety for each person.  What I can do today I can't necessarily do tomorrow.  So what's the best choice?  Suffering or guilt?  I am, for lack of a better term, High Functioning.  It's not obvious.  I just appear weak and a bit lazy.  Others don't see it for what it is.

What I have mentioned so far is only the physical pain aspect.  What I haven't even touched on is Fibro Fog, but I'm a bit fuzzy now and I'll have to cover it later.

But what I can see is the other end of this spectrum that I am on.  The one that has moms who can't get out of bed so they homeschool from there.  That's some serious determination.  That's what I see.