Back Home, Still Sick

By Ricky Buchanan • May 10, 2009

I’m back at home after the tests in hospital, but recovery is proving very slow. I won’t have the final results of the tests until June when I see my specialist, but I know that at least some abnormalities were detected. The hospital was noisy and busy as hospitals are, but the staff were helpful and did their best to let me rest.

After coming home last Monday, I’m needing to sleep about 13 hours a day which is frustrating me hugely. It’s especially frustrating to me that a lot of the “awake” time I can only manage to listen to audio books or do other very passive and low-energy things. There is a small amount of time every day when I can be as active as I usually am (remember I’m bedridden to start with) keeps being swallowed up with the business of living - paying bills and keeping timesheets for my carers and other necessary tasks.

I have managed to work a little on the designs for my other websites - Not Done Living, No Pity City, Four Walls No Limits, and Not Just Work. These take a lot less mental energy than writing ATMac articles, luckily for me!

Hopefully in another week or perhaps two I’ll be up to writing articles again. In the mean time I’d be happy to run any guest posts anybody has to offer - just contact me by whatever method suits you best. See you soon.

- Ricky Buchanan

Categories: Admin
Tags:

About the Author

Ricky Buchanan

Ricky Buchanan is 34 years old and the founder and main writer for ATMac. She's bedridden with severe CFS/ME or perhaps a primary mitochondrial disorder - the doctors are not sure. When she's not working on ATMac or her other websites she composes music, listens to audio books, does other disability advocacy, watches TV with her flatmate, and enjoys her cat.

4 Comments For “Back Home, Still Sick”

Stefan Coetzer May 13th, 2009 at 1:34 am

Hi.

I am a recent subscriber to your wonderful website.

MANY THANKS!!
————-

BTW: How are you doing?
I hope you are enjoying your cat!

Regards,
Stefan
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
Ricky Buchanan May 31st, 2009 at 9:19 pm

@Stefan: Welcome to ATMac! It’s great to see you around - the cat’s on my chest keeping me warm this cold winter day. Unfortunately I’m not up to writing any new articles yet but I’m improving a little so keep your fingers crossed.
Gerry Jun 2nd, 2009 at 11:32 am

Just discovered your site, and I want to wish you well with your medical issues. I enjoyed your post of backup’s and will apply the wisdom to the Windows PC world I live in.

Best of luck!!

Gerry
NJ Jun 3rd, 2009 at 3:38 am

Glad to see you back! Although the guest writers were lovely, we’ll all be glad when you are back to feeling/writing at par… look forward to more of your writing, reviews and insights into accessibility for the Mac!
Cheers!
NJ

Newest Posts

OneThingToday: Focus On What’s Important

OneThingToday looks like a great task manager to help you focus on what’s important today. Once you’ve used the calendar view to input your tasks, switch to the “Today” view to get a single box (optionally transparent) which floats on top of your workspace, constantly reminding you of what you’re working on.

Free PDF To Word Converter For OS X

A PDF to Word converter will only work on text-based PDFs, not image-based ones, but it’s very useful if there is a PDF that you need to convert back to a document format so you can edit it. AnyBizSoft is giving away free licenses via their Facebook page until August 8, 2010.

Apple Announces Magic Trackpad

Amongst updates to the iMac series of computers, Apple yesterday announced an external bluetooth trackpad. This works exactly like the MacBook’s built-in multi-touch trackpad but has a working area of approximately 4.3 by 4.3 inches (11cm by 11cm). A full set of gestures, including the VoiceOver “trackpad as screen” gesture control are available.

Digit-Eyes uses iPhone + Printer to label things

Digit-Eyes uses your printer to print barcode labels which you can then associate with text or audio recordings. To read the labels back, you photograph the labels with your iPhone camera and then the iPhone will read the text or replay the audio for you.

iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch AAC Apps Rundown

Jane Farrall has constructed a great table listing all the important features about all the known assistive/adaptive communication (AAC) applications for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. She’s actively updating the table in response to feedback, this is a great resource for those looking for information about AAC out there.

APHont: A Font for Low Vision Users

APHont is a font developed by the American Printing House especially for low vision users. APHont embodies characteristics that have been shown to enhance reading speed, comprehension, and comfort for large print users. You can install it for free on your Mac computer by following these instructions.

Nuance Buys MacSpeech: What Now?

It’s been announced that the MacSpeech company has been purchased by Nuance. Nuance are the company behind the Windows product “Dragon NaturallySpeaking“ and other recent Dragon products for iPod Touch and iPhone. So what does this mean for MacSpeech Dictate and the other MacSpeech products? What would you like to happen?

Doing Math on a Mac

Doing math can be a big problem for students who can’t write or work with rulers and protractors and compasses. It’s hard to type math problems in a regular word processor, and it’s impossible to work out “protractor and ruler” type problems. Here are some programs which can help students do this type of maths on a computer

Alternative Keyboard Layouts

Virtually all computer keyboards in English speaking countries are arranged so that the letter keys, if you read from the top-left, start of with QWERTY. What are the alternatives and why would you want to change anyway?

Adapt KeyStrokes Keyboards with LayoutKitchen

Now that KeyStrokes and LayoutKitchen work together, I have adapted the stardard KeyStrokes keyboards to work more the way I want them to. Here’s how to do the same for yourself.

ATMac

Assistive Technology for Apple and Mac Users