Today's politics are making my head spin!

I used to think I knew a little bit about politics. I probably leaned more Republican through most of my life but became an independent a number of years ago. I find they all have a mix of good ideas and bad. Now my head is spinning about how things are now and a double standard that makes me very confused.
Mike Huckabee was quoted as saying "I'm not going to watch the Oscars because he wants a blessing to a bunch of celebrities spouting political ideas". Does he know we have a president who said that he was a celebrity due to his Apprentice show. I would just dismiss the idea that Donald Trump is a celebrity except he himself as said he is. He even complained because it is show didn't get an Emmy. He said this on the campaign trail.
Do these people ever listen to themselves as the big question!

Good things from having MS – said tongue-in-cheek

I was thinking last night if anything that was good came out of being a Primary Progressive MS quadriplegic. Some of these are real and some are just trying to be funny. Sometimes I can not tell the difference.
I got no significant symptoms until my children were adults.
I don't have ALS.
I get to sleep till 9:30 AM on weekdays.
Get to sleep until 11 AM or noon on weekends.
And don't have to deal with three people I used to work with that were annoying (assholes).
I don't have to pick out my clothes.
I'm allowed to cough without covering my mouth.
I am fed as if I were royalty.
I get to read as much as I want.
I've discovered I get some free videos and TV shows with Amazon prime.
I have learned how stupid Siri is.
I have learned Siri is good for a few things that I can't live without.
I am chauffeured wherever I go, like important people.
I have a lot of people praying for me!
Get to pee into a bag.
I get to play the whiny crybaby card whenever is convenient.
I don't have to do laundry.
Have found out how much my wife really loves me and takes care of me.
Since I can't scratch her chin anymore, my cat leaves me alone and pesters my wife literally all the time.
Nobody asked me to help them move.
I'm sure there are more but these are all I can think of.

MS Post – computer aids

Well I have to appreciate the effort my sons put into helping me with my computer. Late last year was no longer able to use my iPad because I could not lift my right hand up to use the touchscreen. I can still read Kindle books at night in my bed. My wife props my right hand up on a pillow and I can touch the lower right corner and it will turn the page. It has to be just so or it won't turn some days I get too tired to even do that.
Late last year my son Dan purchased a system that read my eyes and was supposed to move the mouse. It was quite expensive and he added says here for my son Matt who set up. Two frustrating weeks I determined was just not going to work with my laptop. Is Seymour designed to use with desktop PCs. This seemed like the best solution out there but it turned out to be a bust and I think bat felt pretty bad. His two brothers told him not to worry he just helps eliminate solutions that didn't work.
I remember this software that Iowa vocational rehab and told me about. I tried using it while I was still working but it was too jumpy. I thought with a higher resolution camera in my new computer that perhaps it would work. It took me a long time to find it since I couldn't remember the name. It was called camera mouse. Is put out by Boston University and is free. My son Dan was home in January and tried using that. It really didn't work well because wherever it stopped would just start clicking so would open things I didn't want. In the process of looking at workarounds Dan found a review for a software called Smyle mouse.
There was a 14 day trial and Dan set it up and change the settings so I had to smile to make it clicked. That works a lot better than just clicking wherever it stopped. This software works great and between it and my voice software I am very functional. I can still read my newspaper and Facebook without the voice software will people I hear on the weekends. It is slower but I can get through these. I can also turn the pages on Kindle books with the voice software turned off. If find I read a lot. This software is also give me back the ability to post on my blog as long as I'm here by myself.
My son Dan also set up my voice software to be turned on when I load it. The advantage of this as that I can reboot my computer if I need to. This happens a couple times a week because it just gets stuck. So now I restart it with Smyle mouse. After reboots Dan has found a way to get started again. Here is how it goes – I use Cortana, which is a Windows 10 voice software, to initiate my voice software. The voice software startup and it is ready to go. I use it to move the mouse over the Smyle mouse icon and click it. Then it makes me select the PC's own camera and then loads Smyle mouse. Then I click on the calibration button and calibrate smile mouse. It follows my mouth and then clicks when I make a Smyle motion. Toward the edges and corners of the screen I have to smile multiple times but eventually I can click it. So all in all I have independency with my PC now.

Old photo – new post.

This photo popped up on Facebook today and said it from six years ago. This is Macy in her queen pose. She is surveying her kingdom. She is a benevolent ruler and let's my wife and I lived with her. She even let us by house in Cedar Rapids. What kindly kitty.
Atlas is back home today so there was no doggie here. I sure miss him when he leaves, to make up for it Macy jumped up on my lap for the first time in months. I had my coffee cup on my lap table so there was not much room. I backed up a little bit which is pretty hard getting my hand onto the control. She was still restless and climbed up on my PC. She stood on the? Key, open up Windows Explorer and open my Gmail. She also turned off the speakers. I decided to try to get my coffee cup off of my lap table which is Velcro on. It fell on the floor and the noise annoyed her so she got off my PC onto my lap table. Now there is plenty of room for her but the little princess was irritated so she got down on the floor and went in the other room. When she is easily annoyed because of the Princess. When she acts like she owns the place called the Queen.

MS – Miscellaneous Post

I used to have so many ideas about what to post. That was back when I could take photos or copy portions of my Bible and comment on either. Now that I can no longer do either I kind of run out of ideas. I guess I get tired posting about MS.
I'm not sure how much to reveal about my particular disease. As you can imagine how difficult it is to not be able to use my arms and hands. There's so many things now that other people have to do for me. I could no longer scratch anywhere I have a itch, this is really pretty frust itch rating and humiliating to ask so often. For some reason my eyebrows are the most common. One of the common symptoms of MS is itching. I take two Benadryl at bedtime to help with this. For some reason MS makes my hands itch and without the Benadryl I arms itch and spasm. I also cannot feed myself. Used to be able to feed myself in the morning and my arms were fresh but that ended last December. I guess I'm just a big baby now.
Normal things like combing hair, shaving, brushing teeth have to be done by someone else. I'm a little too embarrassed to discuss bathroom functions except to say that I need to be lifted in the sling and suspended over the toilet. Enough said.
My main caregiver is my wife and my sons help out. Our youngest son comes over every day before work and feeds me lunch and does some of the things.
One of the most "unfortunate" things is that I could no longer scratch Macy's ears or chin. This is a serious issue and she is had to branch out and find other "suckers" to take advantage of. When our son Tom is here she is relentless in getting him to brush her. He yells at her but then brushes is one anyway. She sure has a way of getting what she wants.

Politics and Fairness – seem to be a double standard

Politics/fairness – I was not a Hillary supporter/hater or a Donald Trump supporter/hater. I do have to point out a lack of fairness I see now.
When I see Kelly Ann Conway on TV I cannot help but think of what Donald Trump said about Carly Fioraina. Whatever is that about Carly could easily apply to Kelly Ann Conway.
When I hear on the news Donald Trump whining about how unfair the media is toward is people I cannot help but think of what he said and insinuated about Ted Cruz's father being involved in the Kennedy assassination.
One Donald Trump ignores and combines about the interest in is Russian connection I cannot help but think of how you criticize specific things about Hillary Clinton and her connections and pay to play.
The word disingenuous comes to mind! Also narcissistic crybaby.

A busy weekend!

I had a pretty busy weekend. I have a controller on the back of my chair now and who is reprogrammed last week so that my wife feels more comfortable driving me in my chair now. Occasionally but rarely my right hand can run the controls a little bit but very inconsistent. Now she can take me places and drive me around.
Friday we went to a local barbecue place called Q Dogs. We tried going in the back door thinking it would be easier. It was really not. The threshold is very difficult to drive over and the hallway leading in was angled so we accidentally left a hole in the wall. Oops. Our nephew Zach was the music for that night and will really enjoy listening. Her sisters were there, one brother-in-law and her mom. I sure enjoy smoked meats. I always enjoy the food there and was my first time out no fairly long time.
Saturday night we went to a fundraiser for the local animal control agency. Got a table and were joined by her sisters, their husbands and her mom. With our table we each got a free drink and there were some hors d'oeuvres that were just fantastic. I ended up having three glasses of wine and was still a good boy. I think I'll fourth wine would've turned me into naughty Phil.
Sunday I was still feeling pretty good so we went out to a fundraiser called chili and blues. I think I tried over 20 chili's. They were all pretty good and if you were outstanding. The weather outside was pretty warm but extremely windy. It sure is nice to have somebody else driving me around since I'm no longer able to do it. At first it was pretty frustrating because I'm losing my independence. I guess it's just another thing that I have to learn to accept and trust on. Well thanks again for reading my blog and I hope my new software that runs right mouse using my face and clicks when I smile will help me post more.

Safety In the Home

Recently I became eligible for Medicare. That happens after you're on disability for 25 months. We met with the man at St. Luke's who was very familiar with Medicare and other insurances. Medicare part A is free and covers hospitalization. After discussing our options with them we decided it was best for me to stay on my wife's insurance through work and turned down Medicare part B which cost money. To get the same coverage as my wife's insurance we would've had to purchase a supplement to part B and the cost would be more than what her insurance costs. We thought that Medicare would help cover home health so that our son who comes in beat me lunch and/or my wife gets me up could be relieved and Medicare would cover.
She started calling providers and found out that Medicare does not cover these services. Neither would part B. The first place she called asked her a lot of questions. The person she talked to was fairly rude and snotty. She insinuated that I was in it unsafe environment and that we should consider a higher level of care. Right, if we did that we would be completely broke in less than five years. My wife told me about it I got pretty angry about what this lady said. I told one of my sons about it knee got pretty angry too. I feel perfectly safe in my home. Reason stay I had in the hospital early last year taught me that being under the care of the medical field is not necessarily superior. A constant battle with the nurses over my care. I know what I need but many of them thought that since they were nurses they knew better than I did. One example was the thermostat. I am heat sensitive and I kept having to ask each nurse who came in of which there were dozens, to turn the down because it was too warm. They kept turning up the thermostat and that I would be overwhelmed by the heat. I finally caught one turning it up for no other reason than "that's where we have it set usually". I kind of yelled at her and told her to put a note on the thermostat to not change it. I didn't like to get obnoxious but after dozen people doing the same annoying thing I lost my patients.
So this "higher level of care" terrifies me. I happy with how things are and do not want to be immersed in the medical field unless absolutely necessary. The play be on the phone acted like a fire would be something that I'm exposed to here. This couldn't be further from the truth.
I think if I was in a nursing home and would be the lowest priority to be taken out of the building if there was a fire. It always took three nurses to use their lift to get me out of the bed at the hospital. My wife does it by herself every day with a ceiling lift. If there happens to be a fire we have smoke alarms and if I smell smoke so that I know it's not a false alarm I can use my phone with the "hey Siri" function. If I need anything I can call my son, wife or or if need be 911. There are two fire stations within 2 miles of our house. I feel much safer here that I would in a nursing home where would be the last priority because it would take three people to get me to safety. Every time I think about this I get angry. Was good to get this off my chest and I'm so glad I can be at my own home. I really hated the hospital because there were so many people who attended be that I had to educate on what was normal for me and my MS. I cannot get out of bed but they put down on my chart that I was a "fall risk". No amount of convincing would work so that they did not think I would fall. I cannot move so I don't know how it would fall and less they dropped me. Enough said you all take care

MS Status Update – early February 2017

I have kind of lost track of what I have posted the latest update on my MS condition. Part of this is due to the cognitive part of MS. I find it very difficult to remember things even things that are repeated every day. I also find that my "filter" is not working very well and I say some things that I ought not to.
As far as physically my right hand now sits on my lap most of the time. I'm no longer able to drive my chair except for very short drives in the morning. As the day goes on my arm is weaker and the range of motion decreases. I'm still able to use my right arm to tilt my chair seat back and up but it takes an unbelievable amount of concentration to get to move a few inches to run the tilt joystick. I can still pull my water or coffee cup toward me a little bit so that I can get to the straw. I'm still able to be here alone between my wife getting me up, my son coming to be me lunch and my wife getting home. When the chair is tilted back a little bit I am able to run my PC using smile mouse program and I can dictate with my voice software.
Right now I'm very comfortable in my chair and I can tilt back and sleep if I want to. I usually take a nap in the afternoon on weekdays. On the weekends I usually sleep pretty late and don't get out of bed until near lunchtime.
Late last year I could no longer use my right hand to scratch Macy's ears or chin. She pretty much ignored me now but does come up some nights and sleep on my shoulder for a while but mostly she doesn't have time for me. Oh well that's how cats are.
I'm really starting to wonder how much more this disease can take from me but I'm sure it will find something. I'm pretty close to not being able to turn the pages on my iPad while I'm in bed. Is suppose that is the next thing. I purchased a mouth stick that was bendable hoping to use it in bed and my iPad. When I received it it would not work as they described. I was able to email the seller on Amazon and they are working with the manufacturer to fix this problem. If they don't fix it soon I will have to figure out something else. I don't think a straight mouth stylus will work in my case. I may have to try.
Well that's all for now and God bless you.

I had a cuddle kitty but it cost me sleep.

This my first attempt at posting on my blog for quite a while. Since I can no longer brush the cat or even scratch your ears she had become a stranger to me. She loves my wife now and she pesters her constantly. She does tend to be one person cat. I was complaining yesterday and I wanted my kitty back.
Last night I got my wish. Macy came up and laid by my head and curled up next to me. I must've moved too much for it to went down and laid between my legs. I woke up about 2 AM and she was still there. I had to cough but was worried she would get annoyed and leave. So for the next four hours I try not to cough and my sleep was terrible. I got my wish though. About 9 o'clock came up with later my arm and slept until I wife got there. Now I am very very tired trying to stay awake enough to not cough and annoy Macy. I can barely stay awake. Oh well it's a pretty good trade-off!