1 September 2012

The weather is very fickle. As we moved towards the end of August we were told that it was the driest on record, then, in the last two or three days the torrential rain was such that the records were reversed and it became the wettest August for 100 years. This goes to show how meaningless records can be.

Dragon was still playing up and at one stage became so erratic and I had to call on Paul’ the computer’, who had been playing with the settings, which may have had something to do with it, combined with my hoarse, but weaker voice. Paul was so good. He happened to be round the corner in his brother Terry’ s works and was here in a flash and solved the problem within a few minutes. We are so lucky to have Paul who has a deep working knowledge of the software.

The irony is that all of this time I have been comforted with the thought that although I will lose the use of my hands and therefore not able to operate the keyboard, I should be able to continue doing my blog using voice only commands, what I had not reckoned on was that as my diaphragm muscles weakened, so would my voice. So far Dragon has continued to recognise my dictation reasonably well not perhaps as well as before my voice started to deteriorate but well enough to make it worthwhile continuing. But bearing this in mind the readers must expect this blog to fade out unless I can think of some way round it.

This would be a great pity as the blog’s ultimate objective was to follow me to the grave demonstrating to other sufferers that it can be achieved quietly, gently and painlessly.

Thus allowing them to draw comfort from my experience. For this reason it is imperative I find some way to continue this blog until the end

Who says that the day of the physical newspaper is coming to an end. Click here to see why a newspaper will always come in handy.

31 August 2012

I had an absolutely disastrous morning battling with Dragon. I think this is the worst it has ever been. What happens is that anytime during my dictation a word can split in half and the second part of that word will appear five or 10 lines above corrupting the original dictation as well as the […]

30 August 2012

Mid-morning, Neill, the engineer looks after our alarm systems, came and installed a basic alarm system to my lounger chair. I now merely need to knock it and hear the recorded voice offering me the choice of going up or going down First impressions, on using this new simplified control system, is that it will […]

28 August 2012

I had a problem getting up this morning. The two young girls who was sent round to shower and dress me were very competent and polite but no one simply not strong enough to allow me to relax and know I would come to no harm. Instructions from them to ‘hold on’ or ‘lean back’or […]

27 August 2012

Another Tuesday when I could have gone to the golf club but unfortunately Smiler was on his way home from Wale, so was not available to take me. The good Dr Michael will be with us this time next week, so, depending upon the weather, I might get there then. When we changed over hoists, […]

26 August 2012

Following on from yesterday’s entry about dying, there have been subtle changes in the attitude of people around me which point to the fact that they too accept that my time might be nigh. Whereas six months ago ‘my lovely’, bravely taking the stance that I might well have a year or two before me […]

25 August 2012

With all this talk of anxiety and the need to medicate me against it, I wondered why, after living it with the consequences of MND, for five years or so, I should now find myself anxious, or worrying about it whenever the question arose. I suppose it was because when I was diagnosed I read […]

24 August 2012

A personal problem many elderly people have to deal with is incontinence. If one is a prisoner in a wheelchair with little or no use of his hands then there are entirely reliant on others to assist. them. I’m glad to say that I have a excellent control over my bladder since my radical prostatectomy […]

23 August 2012

According to the night carer I had the best nights sleep yet. In effect I was heavily sedated so the outcome was not surprising. From about lunchtime on yesterday, for no apparent reason, I felt agitated. I could not get comfortable; I could not scratch an itch; I could not get myself in the right […]

22 August 2012

Sleeping well. Whether this is the result of adding the second anxiety pill or not I cannot tell except that I certainly feel very wearily most of the time and I can only put this down to be slightly sedated by my medication. Also, I seem to dream more than I did previously. Last night, […]