Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Learning to talk again

I have had some significant losses on this journey-the ability to walk and to use my hands, no more cooking (my passion), no more photography (my other passion)-but the loss that I'm now facing is the most devastating one yet.  Those of you who know me know how much I like to talk...in this regard, I am my mother's daughter.  Now the muscles needed for talking are failing, my mouth, tongue and muscles supporting the vocal cords are all affected.  Consequently, it is very difficult to understand me and I don't talk on the phone any more.  I love to get newsy e-mails from friends and family, as long as they know that I am unable to reply.

Three years ago, I completed a long and tedious task and I'm very grateful that I did.  I recorded 1,610 sentences for an American group that was beta-testing a program called "Model Talker".  Now my voice has been put in to a communication machine for me.  Now I face another long and arduous process, to become proficient.  They put a little dot on my glasses and when I move my head, the mouse moves.  When I have typed what I want to say with my head mouse, the machine will speak what I have written, in my voice.  I can save favorite words and phrases to save myself some time.  I'm just starting to learn now, I think it might take quite a while.



2 comments:

  1. Well, Sheila, you can practice with me tomorrow!
    Hug...hug...hug...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just want to share my story so i can reach out to others. My mom was diagnosed with ALS (Lou gehrig's disease) in the summer of 2013. She is my best friend and all i have got in this world. And I was scared because when the doctor told me about how deadly this disease is i could not help but cry. She suffered all through the time, she could no longer walk as all her bones were weak, speak or even eat, this were years of torment as i have never seen anything like it or ever been so scared in my life and i wept as the days go by. We tried several drugs like Riluzole, and various therapy that was prescribed by the doctor but it came out even worse as she became very thin. She is 65 years old. I actually thought i was going to loose her after all i have spent. I was in church one day when a fellow in the christian faith told me about a doctor who has a cure and that this doctor had cured a colleague she knew suffered from ALS, i was in shock and recalled the doctor once told me there was no cure, she gave me the doctor's contact and i contacted him and told him all we have been through and he told me about his very effective herbal medicine that treats it permanently, though at that time i did not believe but i wanted my mom to be okay again so i decided to give a try and he sent me the medicine which i gave her as instructed by the doctor. In a month time i was amazed at the improvement and by the second month she was completely okay, during all these times she did not experience any side effects. To confirm all these we went back to the doctor to confirm, he ran all the tests and found no trace of ALS in her again. Today my mom can run, jog, eat and speak fine without any assistance currently she is baby sitting my daughter and till now she is still very strong. If you are suffering from ALS (Lou gehrig's disease) do not die in silence because there is still hope for you. Contact the doctor on (josephalberteo@gmail.com) i am very sure he can help you too.

    ReplyDelete