22 October 2011
Last night in bed was the worst ever. Not only were my knees and hip painful for but my left shoulder was excruciating and, in addition, I had a strange pain in the sole of my heel. It was like a red hot poker being thrust into it or large piece of broken glass. Contrary to what I would have thought most of these pains almost disappeared as soon as I was sitting up on the edge of the bed.
The good Dr Michael, who was still here at the time might have suspected bone cancer. if it were not for the fact that I had a bone scan quite recently to eliminate that cause, .It will be very interesting to see what the pain consultant has to say about it when I go to the Rank Hospice the week after next. The good doctor Michael has left behind a pain patch which he gave to his sister, Jenny, when she was dying recently from cancer – I imagine it is some of slow release morphine.He does not like to use this on me until it has been cleared by my team docter as it may affect my breathing but I shall certainly bring it up at my next consultation.
The flying Dr left just before 9 a.m. but he will be back within a couple of week’s It’s great to have him here. even for short periods, for not only do we get the pleasure of his company, but also the benefit of his extensive medical experience. It’s like having one’s own private physician.
Paul came just after lunch so that Alice could go and do some shopping and we spent a couple of useful hours on the computer. I have still not heard from Ruben at Dragon despite my daily telephone calls and always finding him busy promising ,through an intermediary, to ring me back, but never does. I think this is appallingly discourteous, even if all he had to say is that he is still awaiting a response from the US. The last e-mail I sent to him. I reminded him of the short lifespan of an MND patient and suggested that if they were going to take another six months to answer the latest information I sent to them, then not to bother, as I would probably be dead! I also told him that I had made 53 telephone calls to his number and just discovered that it was at a premium rate, admittedly not a high one, but high enough to have added around £40 to my telephone bill, which I suggested they refunded. I shall inform him next time that I believe that his company could be sued for ‘fraudulent misrepresentation’ as the girl who answered the technical helpline claims that the service they are providing is free. In addition, I believe I would have an action against Dragon on the grounds that this software is not’ fit for purpose’.
You can see how desperate I am becoming to resolve this problem. Even this droll humour and veiled threats did not embarrass insufficiently to return my calls. The problem is there is no alternative for me at this stage. After investing 20 years and several thousand pounds into this voice activation programme, there is no way that I can start again with some other software, so I will just have to persevere.
A new problem has arisen recently, which even perplexes Paul, whereby if I am the dictating to the Dragon pad or tapping out single words with my one splnted finger, after two or three letters, the cursor jumps back several words and puts the balance of the word, which I am trying to write, in the middle of earlier text. This is extremely frustrating and takes a lot of tidying up. Whether this has anything to do with Dragon or some other problem, I have yet to find out.
I take my mind off all this frustration by laughing at some of the many jokes and anecdotes which are sent to me. This one is not entirely politically correct but should only offend illegal immigrants who should not be here in the first place. I wonder whether the counties from whence they come would be so generous to any of our citizens who illegally entered their country? Chick here.