MS update – January 2017

It has been a while since I posted on my blog. This become a lot of work to post due to my MS advancement. Last December I became essentially a full quadriplegic. I can no longer drive my wheelchair. I had a caregiver control added to the back of my chair. It is proved to be very difficult for my wife and sons to drive me and that is how I get around now. My wife gets me up and puts me in front of my PC. I can use the voice software to operate it as long as there is no background noise. It is very time-consuming and tedious but I can do some things.
In December one of my sons purchased a device that was supposed to allow me to operate my PC I'm following my eye movements.. After two weeks or so of Matt helping me with it I decided it did not work well enough to use or trust is. It promised so much but delivered so little. One issue was that I was using it on a laptop. It was also very difficult to recalibrate every day based on where I was in relation to my PC. Too often it could not even find my eyes. Even when it worked it was very inconsistent.
So 2016 was a year of many disappointments. I thought if I kept using my right hand, I would not lose it. Is turned out to be untrue and MS took it away in spite of everything I did to keep it. My trigeminal procedure last February lasted for eight months and then the pain came back. So now I'm back on the medication that affects the use of my appendages. I guess it doesn't matter now since MS made me a full quad. It took away the pain with a much smaller dose so I guess that's a good thing. Overall it seems kind of disappointing that this wasn't a permanent fix. I could go through it again but it was unbelievably expensive (insurance covered most) and a huge amount of hassles with prep work down in Iowa city.
So my December was especially difficult and I can't say a brought anyone any joy in the mood I was in. I've now popped out of that dark time and have a little better attitude. I emailed by pastor and told him how disappointed I was in the changes through 2016. He understood and is very sympathetic. I'm sure the church members are praying for me and maybe that's why my attitude has picked up a little.