First, let me apologize for not posting more frequently over the past couple of weeks. There are 2 phenomena occurring in my life that might explain the paltry number of posts.
Phenomenon #1 -- I'm in the final stages of launching a new business, and there seems to be at least 1,000 things to get done every day as "the big day" grows nearer.
Phenomenon #2 -- I've tried to make this blog a 'real-time' reflection of the wins, losses, trials & tribulations that occur in our lives. The truth is that the past couple of weeks have been pretty much 'status quo' as far as Jeanne's condition and all of the MS-related variables that swirl around our lives seem to go.
So there you have it...a case of 'no news is good news', but no news is still no news. Unless you start thinking too much about it.
Yesterday, someone asked me what Jeanne does all day. It's actually a difficult question for me because it forces me to re-focus on the extent of her disability. I know that a lot of folks who are home with disabilities are able to "break down the walls' by getting online. Unfortunately, it's not an option for Jeanne...she can't sit up, her tremor keeps her from successfully navigating with a mouse, her swallowing and speech issues keep her from using voice-recognition software to navigate, her vision problems preclude her from reading any online content...as I said, it's not a real option for her. And that goes for email and instant messaging as well.
The same set of disabilities keep her from using a personal computer to write -- which used to be her profession and her passion. And her cognitive decline makes even the act of dictating to someone else someething that lies beyond her abilities.
Jeanne's vision problems make it impossible for her to read. And her cognitive decline makes following an audio book difficult but sometimes doable. Needless to say, we have lots of audio books. Jeanne watches television to pass the time. But it's really listening to television, as her vision problems get in the way of her watching even a big-screen TV. Thank God for DirecTV and it's hundreds of channels...there's usually something available at any hour that will help the time pass. But I know that's all it is...Jeanne was never a real fan of television even when she was writing for it!
And yet in spite of the dismal picture I may have painted in the preceding paragraphs, Jeanne is almost never without a smile. So how does Jeanne spend her day? More bravely than I ever could.
Again....I read your post and cry. My mom watches tv all day long like Jeanne. Her hearing is getting worse, so I'm not really sure she even hears what is on tv. What else can she do? She cannot walk, has trouble talking, she barely has use of her arms and can barely sit up straight. I'm soooo sad.
Posted by: Patti | April 01, 2008 at 06:18 PM