If you could drop everything, and move to somewhere new in your country, where would it be? I have been offered this option by my husband.
I want real community togetherness, not big city, clean air and water, open minded people, and to live life well and fully. A down to earth kind of existence, without so much hassle and stressors. Moderate climate, and just a small home for us to grow old in. Not sure where to find it but if we can, I'll be kissing our state goodbye toot sweet.
So, where would your home ad life of your dreams be?
loving hugs, Louise.
BTW we HAVE lupus but we ARE NOT lupus. think sbout it for minute, you will get the difference.
I don't think I would like to move anywhere. My family is here and I love my little home, If I HAD to move it would be southern CA. I have friends that live in San Juan Capistrano and I think the climate is perfect, no 16 de. gree days there as we are experiencing today.
I would move to Belize or St. Thomas or somewhere else in the Virgin Islands. My sister lives in St. Croix and it is so beautiful there but very expensive to live there. Of course, I would also like a home in the mountains in the northeast (maybe Bar Harbor, Maine) where I could spend the summers as they are very brutal in St. Croix.
I would like to live in Southern Indiana, closer to my siblings. Still close enough to my children, I couldn't bear to be too far away from them. The climate is warmer than Northern Indiana, and the pace is slower, easier and friendlier.
I don’t know that I would move. I live in a small town in a no-growth county, which is hard to find in CA. I’m about an hour from Tahoe and an hour from Sacramento so close to snow if my kids want to play in it and close to a city if I need something I can’t find around here. Summers can be a little hot but we have a pool and I grew up with the heat so my body is used to it. We’re below the snowline so winters are cold but with rain not snow. Although this year it’s been in the 60’s during the day and freezing at night which is odd. The only thing that I wish was closer was the ocean. But my husband and I have talked about retiring to Mendocino depending on my health at that point (and his) I have to remember that his health is slowly going downhill too so we may need to be close to a major medical facility. I love our community and being in Northern CA everyone is laid back, low stress, helpful etc… I lived in SoCA for 5 years and it’s full of brittle, status-conscious plastic people. Not my style at all. I felt like I had to be wearing a full face of makeup and dressed just right to leave the house, who needs that, blech. NoCA is full of small towns packed with creative types, homesteaders, people living closer to nature, kitchen gardens etc… I’m probably biased since I was born here but I traveled when I was younger and haven’t quite found anything to compare. I loved CT because it was so green but I wouldn’t do well with the winters (Raynaud’s in my lungs) but I loved the summer. The humidity helped my sjogren’s immensely. Of course, it also depends on where my boys end up. My oldest will probably stay in CA. My middle son could end up anywhere (he will be playing baseball in college) and my little guy is only 8 so it’s way too soon to tell. He was our surprise bonus as I went into peri-menopause at 32. Ok, I’m rambling now…lol Sorry, pain meds have me a bit loopy. A.
I always wanted to live on the beach, but the older I get I realize that I am a "country girl" , always have been and always will be !!!
I was born and raised here in East Tennessee and I love it...small town ...country atmosphere......and I live in the house again that I was raised in but it is no longer a farm like when I was a little girl..........and I have a view of the Smoky Mtns. from my window....and I enjoy all the seasons like Ann A was talking about :)
Two of my children and two grandchildren and most of my family live here in the same county, and I have one daughter and four grandchildren that live in NC near the outer banks...I wish they were closer because it is hard for me to visit more than about once a year.
So all in all this "country girl" is very happy right here in the midst of the mountains....... :) and I can always "visit" the beach !
I am so content where I am now that I don't have any idea where I would go. My sister who goes away in the winters feels so much better when they are in Arizona. I know several people who say this and also about New Mexico.
I know I wouldn’t anywhere. I love our old home in this small town in the south. The weather is usually mild with the exception of rather warm summers. Our house is located by a lovely river with nothing between us and the it but a small field do we have a gorgeous view. I like my family doctor and we have a great church family. Also two of our sons life here with their families so I can my grandkids whenever I want. I don’t think it could get any better than that.
If you want really small with rural options, Port Townsend, WA (Victorian town with a combo of hippie artists, more conservative shipbuilders, and many retirees.) If you want a little bigger, Bellingham, WA. Maybe Anacortes (natural beauty like you wouldn’t believe, and the launch point for ferries to the San Juan islands), or maybe just live in the islands themselves. Mt. Vernon or Poulsbo (farm towns, a little conservative for me as a Seattle girl, but it is still western WA and hard to find anyone too closed-minded, regardless of politics!) All of the above except Poulsbo are in WA’s “banana belt” that gets comparably more sun and less rain than Seattle and the rest of Western WA. One of the great things about these towns (in my opinion, being a huge loyal fan of my hometown…) is being in proximity to such a great major city as well! (Seattle) And Bellingham, Anacortes and the San Juans are also very close to Vancouver, BC.
Even if you don’t end up liking it for living (and some of these areas, especially Pt. Townsend and the San Juan Islands, can be quite expensive) put urban, rural and wild Puget Sound region on your bucket-list. From the East Coast flying out here can be a bit pricey, but from the Midwest and west of there you can find cheap deals since Seattle’s the Alaska Airlines hub. Not to mention a major international one with directs to both Europe and Asia, but that might not be what you’re looking for in seeking small community And I don’t think you’ll find more natural beauty anywhere!
I just dropped everything of my life in Oregon and moved to Houston Texas. I felt like I needed to be where the weather was mildr and also closer to my sister. I had been in Oregon for 12 years but the weather there reaks havoc on my arthritis and the lupus diagnosis made me feel a need to be closer to family. I have now been in Houston since the week before Christmas and have straight up had the flu since the day after I arrived. Lol! Just my stinking luck! Here’s to hoping 2014 and Houston prove to be good to me. Hope 2014 is great for you as well. Crystal.
Id LOVE to live in Hawaii! It was such an amazing time there with just my mom and I. It was a splurge to go but now being sick and not being able to do much it is something we cherish even more. Such a wonderful time and memories made! Although seriously would love to move any where that is warmer. I live near Minneapolis, MN so we are in the frozen tundra and this -50* stuff is really hard on my body. So anywhere warmer id be happy with! :)
I am currently facing that issue right now. My husband's company desperately wants him to run their office in Oahu as he is considered something of a "fixer" for problem, underperforming offices. Currently, living in Vegas, I am rarely outside as even the sun through a windshield will burn me and put me into a flare. Ugh!
I lived on the island of HI when I was younger and having grown up in San Diego, felt at home. However, it was lonely. And being that it was before the age of Internet and such it was difficult to meet people.
Now that I am older, it is just my husband and I and we would be in a more populated area, I think it would be an adventure. Most of the homes have covered lanais and temperate climate that would allow me to be outside much more so than I am now.
I am going over there on Sunday for a trip we already had planned and his company is paying for us to stay for extra time to look at homes...still trying to get us there.
I must say tho, that with the holidays the timing of adding that stress on top of it, it's been one flare after another.
I am hoping that wherever you live, you live life to the fullest and best of your ability.
That;s exciting about your possible move to HI. Do you have any family or friends there? I've never been there, the plane ride is too long for me, I love Vegas but if I lived there I'd be in the poor house, Actually my daughter and I will be in Vegas in March.
A flare can be described as an increase in symptoms, accompanied by a fever or increased fatigue usually. As Lupus affects us differently, the severity of a flare is different for each of us.
I'm with you! I also live in Minnesota (the frozen tundra) although I live roughly 50 miles north of the cities. I would love to move to a warmer climate. Winter gets tougher every year. Perhaps I'll just make that my New Years resolution...
Louters said:
Id LOVE to live in Hawaii! It was such an amazing time there with just my mom and I. It was a splurge to go but now being sick and not being able to do much it is something we cherish even more. Such a wonderful time and memories made! Although seriously would love to move any where that is warmer. I live near Minneapolis, MN so we are in the frozen tundra and this -50* stuff is really hard on my body. So anywhere warmer id be happy with! :)
Like others have said, a flare is a symptom increase. More specifically, lupus is a condition that either active or inactive, with the changes between them being relapses and remissions, also referred to informally as a flare vs. back under control/stable (at any level of chronic symptoms, so this doesn’t mean all-better.)
In an active period, it’s not just more symptoms, but more autoimmune attack and inflammatory damage occurring. That’s why they often use heavy drugs that may give you as many or worse symptoms than the disease… It’s important to halt the destruction and then balance out by using the least meds possible (and most lifestyle management!) to keep it under control. It’s always a fine line between the destruction caused by some of the more harmful meds (often chemo at smaller doses than for cancer) and the level of lupus activity. In milder cases they will use much milder meds and encourage lifestyle changes, even though symptoms won’t remit as quickly as with a bigger hammer. And in any case, when and if symptoms resolve is always pretty unpredictable!
Sometimes it’s active over a long period of time, often around the time of diagnosis, both leading up to finally getting diagnosed and then afterwards till meds get it under control. Later on there may be remissions more spontaneously after flares while on maintenance meds. Spontaneous is a little misleading though, because it usually requires self-care like major resting, returning to a healthy diet (I often get little flares when I eat foods I’m sensitive to, which are many!) or other things specifically helpful to different people. Staying protected from the sun is always important whether in a flare or not, because it contributes to increasing activity always, whether you notice a flare or not.
So, usually a flare means acute worsening, officially a relapse or exacerbation. It can happen from a total remission then go back to remission, from a remission then take it back to somewhat active after the flare, which will have to be addressed all over again to reduce it (more likely.) Lupus can flare up from an active state to worse, which may return to the same state (common), or may worsen more ongoing (fortunately, becoming less common since meds are available to control it!) Flare is a really appropriate name for the exacerbation, since inflammation literally means burning/fire (think flammable for the same root.)
So, there’s the really long story I’ve come to after being a lupus patient for a year and a half and a research assistant on lupus studies for the two years before that! There are all these subtly different terms, which are nice to have for this quirky, unpredictable, and hard to measure disease, but it essentially all means getting worse vs. getting better, or at least staying the same. Best of luck to you to avoid flares, and unfortunately they still happen out of the blue to the best of us, despite our best efforts. That’s just the way lupus is. But what I like to think about as well is that it’s not a certain decline like many diseases, and it often returns to stability evening it has those worse periods! So in many ways the most important thing to avoid during a flare is despair
I am also in Minnesota. I live in the northwestern part about 50 miles from Grand Forks, ND. This winter has been rough. If I could live anywhere I would pick a state just south of Minnesota. Somewhere it does not get below 0 for months on end but still has a little snow for Christmas. I am not sure exactly where but I don’t want the humidity of the southern states.
And I don’t think you’ll find more natural beauty anywhere!