Lewy Body Dementia and coordination

 This document like many others, was written by using Dragon 10  voice activated  software,  to make life easier because of coordination problems.

I do not always say this,  because there are times when I try to write things using the keyboard as normal. This is an old post which has been sitting waiting to be checked for mistakes, although with my eyes and brain I do not always see them



 Early on before my diagnosis of early onset Lewy Body Dementia, I realised that my coordination was going wrong.

This happened at work, but as I was on call 24 hours a day I put it down to tiredness at times, but then I realised that it must be something else.

It seemed to start with using tools, then I noticed that I had problems typing on the computer.

This caused problems because it meant that some reports took longer than expected, because something had reversed, and although I hand been right handed all of my life, my left hand had now become faster and this caused problems

It meant that although the letters of each word were there, they were all mixed up, like some sort of code.

I still have no idea what has happened, because this has never been looked at by any doctor even though it's been mentioned a few times.

One consultant at a dementia clinic thought that something had reversed in my brain, but could not be sure.
An MRI scan done later on, said something about cerebral atrophy and TIA but nothing was discussed after this, as the doctors changed, so we were left with no information about these results

To get over this typing problem, I had to sit on one hand and type with the other, something which was frustrating after typing with two hands at work

Eventually my daughter suggested using voice activated software on the computer.

At first we tried the version on my laptop which was Microsoft, but this had problems because it did not understand accents in the UK.

After further talks with my daughter who is a biologist, it was decided that I should try the Dragon voice activated software, which I gather is used by the NHS.

We bought this and loaded it onto the computer, and started the trial testing. This was stressful at times, because of the setting up, and getting it to understand the words.

At one stage in desperation, I swore at the thing, and saw a row of question marks, at which stage I started to laugh, and confess that I never had any more trouble with it again, until I had problems with the computer and had to reload all of the software again

To me this has been a godsend because its so good and relieves much of the stress of trying to type

Yes its expensive, but when your brain goes haywire, I think we have to use anything we can to help ourselves and make life as easy as possible

So now nearly every blogpost I do is written using this software. Yes there are still mistakes, when the software thinks I have said one thing instead of something else, but then its down to my and this brain to find the faults and correct them

One thing I have realised is that the tone of my voice changes on odd days, and this causes odd problems.

I have no idea what causes these tone changes, but I guess its all part of life