How Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Affects Our Homestead 

Prayers for you

My 15 year old has Ed’s and all the complicating dx, I have Ed’s and my son has pots, mcas and major food allergies…. I have never seen anyone talk about this! Followed!!! ❤️

I get it completely. I wasn't able to keep a garden last year bc of POTS and chronic fatigue and weakness from EDS. I was so bummed and I often think about how scary 40 or even 50 will be. As far as gardening, I've been blessed to grow in cheap "raised beds" aka 18 gallon totes, 5 gallon smart pots and and 2.5x2.5 raised cedar bed that was gifted to me. I knew a few years back that I wanted to garden but couldn't manually dig through the clay ground I have or afford a tiller. So most of my stimulus went towards a raised/potted garden. I started out with zucchinis in laundry baskets a few years ago and now I've accumulated quite a bit of material. I saved a bunch of dirt by doing the heugalkultur method in each of my containers. I'm excited to see how it'll turn out. The hardest part for me is being in the heat and lack of water source. I feel like my joints are basically taffy. If it's hot out, my taffy joints melt and if I'm too cold they lock up and crack. And the water source I have is kind of sad. I have to hook up a hose with a special fitting to my kitchen sink while keeping the door cracked to fill up a huge tote out by my plants to then fill up a waterer for everything. But before I even get to that part, I have to put my cats in their cages until I'm don't so they don't escape. The cat process alone wears me out. I try and wait for my partner to help me if I can. Every little thing takes a spoon, ya know? It's a weird way to have to live and I'm still getting used to it. As far as potatoes goes, I'm trying this method where I poke some holes in the bottom of a tall laundry basket and line it with landscaping fabric to hold in the dirt. Then I'll just add dirt to them as they grow like a potato tower. I was actually going to throw it away and then that idea hit me. I'm excited that so far, I've been able to pace myself, listen to my body, and spread out the work load instead of pushing through everything all at one time. Didn't mean for this to turn into a book, but thought I'd share :)

Just happened upon your vid while looking thru the homesteaders. Raising teenage grddaughter with EDS (3yr diagnosis, she's now 17), also mild autism, she's already having almost daily pains in leg joints. Never thought about checking out ytube for others' experiences with EDS. Ankle braces, eh? Jay mentioned them to me the other day. She did well on 14-mile overnight hike/campout backpacking trip, although a bit awkward crossing all the waterways. We're planting various veggies in Grow Bags but maybe we need to find a way to raise them off the ground --- after seeing your vid. So thanks for the heads-up; looks like I need to be addressing her EDS more when it comes to gardening. She starts a weekly job on a local family farm soon, will be helping with the chickens and pigs.

It's hard thinking about aging especially being in the Healthcare field and caring for the elderly