Trying Again with Dragon NaturallySpeaking

[Lyne]

@Faery_Light - yes Fibro can be brought on either by a traumatic physical event (like a car crash) or be there from childhood. Mine was childhood also and growing up as a baby boomer, I got the same crap because doctors didn't know what was going on. In fact they did not know what was going on or even give this syndrome a name until about what 20 or 30 years ago? I've had to do reading and research all my life to figure out what was wrong with me until I finally met a doctor who actually understood and agreed with my diagnosis!

I have a couple of friends who also have rheumatoid arthritis and it's weird how many symptoms of fibromyalgia and RA are the same ! I called them "sister syndromes" . sometimes I wonder if many of these syndromes have developed in human beings because of the incredible amount of pollution it's been around for the last 50 years or so ?!

And now I think I better go try to do a little bit of art…

 

[Lorraine]

I was another childhood sufferer, my mum was told I was just trying to get out of school I wasn't diagnosed until 20 years ago, what a relief to know it wasn't 'all in my mind'.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

My mother has Fibro, RA, CFS, and Lupus all rolled into the same package.

I have Fibro myself, and I'm a carrier for Lupus though I'm not symptomatic for Lupus thank heavens; this is also coupled with a severely underactive thyroid. I most likely will develop RA when I am older. There is not one female in our family for generations who has avoided the RA. And I have had osteoarthritis, most likely since birth, as I honestly cannot remember a single day in my life where something didn't hurt somewhere. Tacking onto this the myriad of broken bones, dislocations and other injuries I've collected in the last 35 years, and you get a pretty nasty jigsaw puzzle when you take an xray of me.

My daughter was DX'd with juvenile Osteo when she was 9, and even as a newborn you could hear her knees and shoulders pop and crackle when she moved them.

So yeah. I get it. Totally. Fibro is a bear to treat, because so many doctors prefer to blow off the symptoms as something else. It often gets missed in a diagnosis, and if it IS diagnosed, it's difficult to find a doctor who's good at treating it. Many folks with it just tough it out, either because they haven't been DX'd with it/recognized for having it, or because they can't get a decent treatment regimen going for one reason or another.

 

[Lyne]

Your words are so true and my heart goes out to you! I wish Dragon could say your name let's try it… So Leah sorry that's as close as it gets and right now I can't type anything out at all…

I could use all the prayers and good thoughts you could spare… My lower back locked up on me in a very severe way-the worst it's had in years. I know why-just too many stresses piling up getting expressed through my body at its weakest points. Part of Fibromyalgia is having muscles that cramp or spasm at any given time and having scoliosis all my life just multiplies my muscle problems. I'm taking my medication but it can only do so much. When it is this bad it's going to take me at least two or three days to get back to normal.

My computer chair is so worn out that although it "fits me perfectly" the perfect fit foam is worn out. I have a small thick hand towel folded up behind my lower back right now trying to make up for that. If this works for a short time sitting here now, then there's hope I might be able to come back "here" later on to do some artwork� I can only hope. There are not many ways that I can sit or lay to relieve the stress on my back muscles when this happens so even prayers for helping me to know what to do and not do are helpful.

Dragon is helping my hand get better at least… And it's good today Sunday because I don't even have to get out of my pajamas and I can lay back down in the one position that makes it better, anytime I want today.

Thanks for your help I know everybody deals with a lot of things so I appreciate even a moment's sending of good thoughts and prayers-believe me I'm soaking them up! (It's my thought that when prayers are openly accepted that they work even better )

 

[Lyne]

Oh crap don't never say the word BACK (I spelled it the sit of saying it just now) to Dragon because it told the browser to do that and I lost what I put in here!

I was trying to put an update:

I actually did it! I got the pillows situated just right for the first time on my small couch to lay down on my right side and be able to watch TV! This way I can get up every half hour and go over to the countertop to drink my glass of water. I think it's safer to be doing this instead of sitting here at the computer because lying down takes all the stress off my back muscles and really lets them start to relax better with the medication. It sort of exhausting when you have a muscle that's that badly spasmed but I'm working my way through it. I'm going to shut my computer down now because as much as I would rather be doing art it's better to take all the stress off my muscles in trying to heal them … sigh

 

[Alisa]

 

[Miss B]

I have lower back pain off and on, and I found out about 6 years ago I have a deteriorating disc, so that's probably the lower back pain I've been experiencing most of my adult life.

As far as my hands/lower arms go, I suffer from acute CTS, and even though it's nothing like Fibro, when it's bad I can't sit and type either. It's the main reason I switched to a Wacom tablet/pen instead of a mouse many years ago.

It's also why I've worn wrist wraps when I'm on the computer for many years as well.

 

[Lorraine]

Big , Lyne...hope you're up and about soon.

 

[Pendraia]

Hope you're feeling better soon Lyne...

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Yeah, that. What they said.

Hope you feel better soon, Lyne.

 

[Lyne]

Thanks so much, all! I'm getting there.... (with my back and SOME more work on my art piece)!

 

[Lyne]

I just ordered a wacom tablet… Even if it will strain my tendency to frozen shoulders by moving my arm I have got to take the strain off my thumb which is not healing from overuse… I'm absolutely terrified I may have gotten myself into a situation like I did with my shoulder and I have got to take the strain off my thumb. After all with a shoulder you can kind of stop using it for a while but not the thumb on your hand! I figure if I don't overdo it with the wacom a can at least take off the stress of using that trackball. Not being able to do art would kill me.

 

[Lyne]

Wow… I just tried some major browser commands here in the forum… I won't say the commands out loud or will happen, but they work very very well! I have just got to use my voice more than my hand! Except I can't seem to get it to post the reply so it won't press buttons so to speak

 

[Air of Winter]

Hi. all!

I tried Dragon NS, but never got along with it, past the tutorials. It's probably just frustration speaking, but subjectively I had the impression that its ability to recognize what I was saying worsened over time, instead of improving. Most likely the problem was my trying to dictate in a style that bore scant resemblance to modern business English.

I have a Kensington four-button mouse. Partly, the extra buttons are useful for 3D apps. But since the device is symmetrical and the buttons can be assigned, it's useful for switching hands.

 

[Miss B]

I have a Kensington four-button mouse. Partly, the extra buttons are useful for 3D apps. But since the device is symmetrical and the buttons can be assigned, it's useful for switching hands.

Oh, having the ability to switch hands with a mouse has always been an interesting thing to me, but having a mouse where you can actually assign the buttons as needed for left or right hand, is definitely a plus.

 

[Lyne]

That's interesting information Air of Winter, I did get my wacom tablet I just have to set it up now and get used to it. I'm hoping to at least just use it in Photoshop to take that type of stress off my mousing… Wish me luck!

 

[Air of Winter]

I have a Wacom tablet for 2D work. I use a Goldtouch for typing. I realized fairly early on (that is, decades ago) that my fingers were getting numb and not recovering when I a lot of hours typing.

 

[Miss B]

I knew someone years ago who had an ergonomic keyboard, but it was all one piece. The couple of times I tried using it, I couldn't type worth a damn, so I'm assuming it takes a lot of getting used to.

 

[Lyne]

Well so much for the wacom tablet… What is that saying? Old dog new tricks-Not! I got it set up I was able to change some of the settings but they don't even show up on my screen in a size their legible as though it wasn't made for a highway resolution monitor or something… The pen flew wildly or rather the cursor flew wildly around until I slowed it down but keeping in mind that I am extremely dyslexic I don't think that this is going to work at all and I'm very sad and upset that I don't have an alternative to my thumb trackball. :-(

The thing is that in Photoshop I don't paint or draw it's all "post work" … moving opening selecting documents pasting etc. I think what I do is really just geared for mouse work and not a tablet… oh well I'll find someone I can give it to.

The only thing that worked out well this week was finally finding oval earphone covers for my Plantronics headset that I use with Dragon … the original covers are very soft but very thin and and they wore out just crumbled off … but I finally found the exact kind both in texture (softness ) shape and size . so I immediately bought a couple of extra packs… before I found those I had bought a second headset … it doesn't hurt to have two of those anyway.

 

[Air of Winter]

Well so much for the wacom tablet… What is that saying? Old dog new tricks-Not! I got it set up I was able to change some of the settings but they don't even show up on my screen in a size their legible as though it wasn't made for a highway resolution monitor or something… The pen flew wildly or rather the cursor flew wildly around until I slowed it down but keeping in mind that I am extremely dyslexic I don't think that this is going to work at all and I'm very sad and upset that I don't have an alternative to my thumb trackball. :-(

The thing is that in Photoshop I don't paint or draw it's all "post work" … moving opening selecting documents pasting etc. I think what I do is really just geared for mouse work and not a tablet… oh well I'll find someone I can give it to.

I don't have a recent Photoshop, but in a lot of software where they anticipate the use of tablets, there'll be a setting to change the cursor handling from mouse to tablet, to make it behave sanely.

I'm buying a new 27" monitor this week, but its top resolution is 1920 x 1080 so I'll be able to see my stuff. (A lot of graphic software user interfaces have horrible UIs. Low-contrast, tiny text. Who the blazes thinks this is a good idea, and why?)