18 June 2012
Our first visitor this morning was Neil, from Possum – the instrument people who set up a master control unit, in my office, which I could use for telephoning, switching the lights on or off, locking or unlocking doors, etc all using a simple switch, which can be operated by striking it with one’s hand. Neil came today to add a second alarm option on the stalk, of what we call triffids (alarm buttons) attached to my bed. With a second switch on the ‘triffids’ stalk, it would not matter which end I struck it, either would trigger the alarm.
I must say, Neil is immensely helpful, and indeed more than that, innovative, in finding solutions to tricky alarm situations. We then spent a little time trying to work out a switch solution to substitute for the up and down switches attached to the NHS chair. The problem at present is, unless the control unit is precisely in the right position, on my thigh, and my finger is splinted, I do not have enough strength to press these small buttons on the chair control unit We came to the conclusion that we would leave things as they are for the time being, but when it became a real problem, Neil would return. and pursue the idea we were working on.
Having said that, with the thousands of NHS reclining seats that they have all over the country, surely there must be at least one patient who has the same restriction on movements as I do, for which they came up with a solution. So, I agreed with Neil, I will also pursue that course of action.
I did indeed telephone social services (equipment division) only to be told that I do not appear on anyone’s referral list so I would need to go through an assessment, over the telephone, before they could do anything. As I cannot hold a pen to write down the telephone number the good lady said she would ask the referral people to telephone me. So the ball is in their court.
Most of the afternoon was spent with Paul ‘the computer’. We were working on various methods of using the Camera Mouse. We came to the conclusion that we would need a good zoom lens in order to pick up the retina of my eye. Paul is confident that if we can do that we can slow down the movement of the mouse on the screen. The problem at the moment is that it flutters about like a ladybird. I see its value from me in being able to direct the mouse, merely by looking at the spot on the screen and then somehow switching the camera off so that the mouse cannot move again using the eye only. The idea is that we use the camera mouse in conjunction with my Dragon, voice activation. For example my biggest problem at present is correcting text. If the correct word is not appear in the correction box and I have to spell it out, I often get spaces and capital letters and it can take me forever to make the correction using voice only. If I can direct the mouse to the precise point in the text, merely by looking at it, this could be a timesaver. This is all in the experimental stage but if we crack it, it will be a great advance not only for me but for others in the same situation.
Having completed this entry. I tried to post it only to find that my blog came up as a complete blank white page. So, as Richard Morris is the only person who has access to the inner workings of this blog, it was an e-mail SOS to him.
.When I tried opening but the blog the following morning. the problem had been resolved. I just hope it wasn’t one of those occasions it took Richard all night, like the previous ones.
After that stressful incident no doubt you felt you could do with a drink. Click here to see if you are an alcoholic!