NaNo with chronic illness/disability

I just remember what I always (try) to forget happens every Nov, as well as NaNo.

I have psoriatic arthritis (kind of combo of rheumotoid and lupus, the autoimmune inflammatory diseases that affect whole system) and WHAM! as soon as weather starts to chill, my fingers swell up, redden, stiffen, and skin peels and crack so every tip stays excruciatingly painful for months.

Typing is bloody (not to pun) painful and stays so!!!

Not to mention the disease fatigue which is a whole other topic and consumes several hours of my life daily despite some pretty hard core drugs (legal ones......)

does anyone else work and write with disabilities?

Because I hurry to add, I DO write anyway. Just as I DO work and live and mush around in general, anyway. I'm 53, and not about to sit and stare at the walls ((though the depression t hat can kick in with chronic illnesses would love for me to do that.)

Just wondering....

mg

I have a friend who deals with this same thing, and I know when it hits, it knocks her for a loop. I can't imagine how painful that must be because I sometimes have to stop just because my osteo-arthritis acts up and fingers (as well as a bunch of other joints) get achy.

I've wondered if there isn't a program I could get that would let you dictate and it would type it for you. I think there is probably something like that out there, but if so, it probably costs a small fortune.

I really admire you for taking on the challenge of nano while dealing with this extra difficulty. Good luck, and take care.

Gloria

There's something called dragonware software and probably a lot more, that recognizes your voice and types it out for you. One of my kids, who has some learning challenges, had a little success with it, though I think he found it more trouble than it was worth. But yes, there are programs like that. I don't even think it was all that pricey.
type on!

I can't work, or really go anywhere, because of my disabilities. So what I can do is write. This last week has been especially tough, health-wise, and I was glad to have NaNoWriMo to keep me busy.

Jamilah,
sorry you're struggling.
We just got back from Lexington, visiting son in college there, ten hour trip in one day, but what a neat city.
yes, writing we can do!

Hi all, I guess I come under this category because I am ‘sight impaired’. Okay, I hate these PC terms – I am pretty much blind. I lost my sight in my right eye over 3 years ago to a degenerative optic nerve disease (that I never can spell). The doctor tells me that I am doomed to lose the sight in my left within a few years. (Right now I have just lost the peripheral). That is why I started nano last year – figured time was running out. I am now on my 4th novel so life is good. I have a voice-recognition reader but it is often more trouble than it is worth; however, it is not top-of-the-line. A friend has a really good one but I think they start at about $4,000US. I know there are some voice activated programs for the computer. Some which are only in the $100’s but I haven’t paid much attention. Guess, because I don’t want to admit I might need one LOL. I know not funny. Anyone with a disability probably throws themselves on the bed in the ‘dark of the night’ and sobs. But, it is glorious when we all push through the disability and show up at nano. We are all winners in my book!

Mine doesn't compare with anything else I've seen mentioned here. I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, and it really kicks in when the days get darker and shorter, like in November. Sometimes I wish Nano was in another month, like June or July.

I’m know that I am far from having the most problems of anyone who is doing this, but just to add my perspective, everything that I need to do for NaNo is more difficult because of disabilities. Yet I do it anyway. One thing about November is that there is a brief period when the air gets cool and dry that breathing becomes easier for me, but then it gets cold and it gets bad again. The cold also makes the pain worse. Still, I love fall and winter, I just suffer through them now.

Even with the problems I wouldn’t miss NaNo, I look forward to it all year. The year my problems all started I was in the hospital until October (not all year but I got out then) and I still had to do NaNo.

I didn’t stand a chance of finishing, but it made me feel better to try. I think it’s the same reason that anyone does this – the experience satisfies something inside of me. Even when I knew that I couldn’t win, I still enjoyed being a part of it.

It’s an odd sort of therapy.

Good luck to everyone. I hope that NaNo treats you well.

I'm classified as legally blind. I use a screen magnifier/reader called ZoomText and it has saved my sanity. I can't function without it. It does cause problems with some things, though. It can not interpret graphics-heavy websites and software very well. Plus it sometimes causes my computer to bog down, especially with pdf files. But I still wouldn't want to do without it.

I just recently discovered that Microsoft Word has a speech recognition option built into it. I use Word 2003 (I'm too cheap to get an upgrade) and it's on the tools menu. If you have a different version of Word, you can probably find instructions on how to activate it on the net. I've been using it with Excel as well. It works fairly well at recognizing words and commands but it's not perfect. The output requires some editing.

When I get down about my vision, I remind myself there are many people in the world who are living with far more difficult circumstances. It helps.

I need to jump in here as well. I'm a newbie. I'm 63. I have Meniere's disease (tinnitus), an impinged disc in my low back, sciatica down both legs, & plantar fascitis in both feet as wll as some other lessor physical problems. (They just seem to keep accumulating.) I also experience major depressive disorder (possibly bi-polar) & on October 4th I made my second major suicide attempt so I'm still pretty much fresh out the the hospital. In fact, it was one of the staff on the "behavioral health" unit who put me onto NaNoWriMo bless her heart. I don't have an outline or even much of a clear idea of where my charactors are leading me. I also don't read fiction anymore (Tennesse Williams was my favorite American author,) so I'm not even sure why I'm doing this except that it seemed like an interesting idea. I just sit down each day and bang out a thousand plus words. The rest of what's going on I just ignore. We'll see where it leads. Namaste.

false harpist, glad you're with us. writing whatever it is you're writing as long as you don't go in those circles where you let yourself cycle down, down, down, should surely help to ease the transition 'back.'
Glad you're here.

I really understand because I have a vasculitis disease called Wegener's Granulomatosis. And, yesterday I was not feeling well at all. I was worried about a flare. Thankfully the symptoms went away today - vomiting, headache, pain, etc. So I think I was just reacting to the weather changes. We had snow the last two days.

I spent several months unable to see. My husband bought stuff so that I could talk to the computer and it could talk back to me. I did all of my computer stuff that way for several months. I got very used to it and it's faster than typing.

I know the current version of Dragon Naturally Speaking is pretty good at cutting out a lot of keyboard use. There are some specialized programs out there for blind people that allow them to use a computer totally without anything but speaking. The one I have was rather expensive.

Nothing like listening to others troubles to make one thankful for small things.

I have Rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis, and migraine headaches. Although these have lessened in the last year or so. I now get the ocular migraine, no pain, just visual disturbances. Lot of pain all over every time the weather front moves through. I'm pretty much out of commission with pain. Since I can't take pain killers and work..... nuff said.

But--we're all st ill here, and we're all still writing!
type on!

I have great sympathy for all of you with your health issues and yet still having the determination to do this.

As for me, I have chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, so I'm exhausted and in pain all the time. I've learned to live with it, though, and still manage to have a good life.

I started NaNo with shingles, but got on antibiotics within 16 hours so the outbreak wasn't as bad as what some people experience. The residual nerve pain has been horrendous so I'm off to the doctor tomorrow to get something for that. Lying down increases the pain, thus making me even more tired than usual.

So far, I'm doing okay with my story. Heading towards 30k words, I've now reached the point where I'm wondering what my characters will do next because I have absolutely no clue and can feel my fingers about to grind to a halt on the keyboard.

Good luck to all of us.

Wow, and I thought I was struggling with health issues. Raspberry, my mom struggled with macular degeneration the last part of her life. There are a lot of help aides out there for the blind. Contact your local Blind Association if you have one.
My problem is my knees. I have such severe arthritis in both that it is hard to walk or stand. Really limits my enjoyment of life. For one thing, I used to love going to flea mkts. Can't do that. Heck I can barely walk from the parking lot into work some mornings. Went to the dr yesterday for shots in both of them of this stuff that is supposed to help cushion the joints. I'm worse today than before I went. I hate doctors.
But, at least I can still sit and type. Good luck to all us old people. Growing old ain't for sissy's.

Sereana,
Have you tried Glucosamine with Chronditin. It use it to cushion joint pain when I have to wean off of prednisone. It does a fine job.

I wish I could edit - I use it to.... and the forgotten question mark ARG

Hi all. So great to see you're all writing. This is my first NaNoWriMo. I was really questioning if I could do it. I completed 2 novels decades ago and for a long time really have believed I could no longer sustain the concentration to write another due to cognitive impairment (epilepsy.) I am so thrilled to be doing so well! My partner says she hasn't seen me this excited and energized in years. In addition, I have multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome, osteoarthritis, very stubborn (I like that better than refractory) hypertension, fibromyalgia. I take lots of supplements and meds and need assistance on a daily basis. I'm writing a fictionalized memoir about disability based on a near-death experience I had in and out of hospitals a little over a year ago- is anyone else writing about disabilities - their own or others? The questions of how we take care of each other when people in community are mostly disabled is of great interest to me, not only practically, but also philosophically. When I was in the hospital in Sept. of last year and not getting on well with the docs, I SAID I'd be getting the last word. After all, I'm the writer. And aren't we all!

Write like you mean it!

Barbara