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Graham Orm

Established Member
Joined
6 Jan 2013
Messages
3,646
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Location
Manchester
Hello folks. I used to attend this forum a lot, but haven't for a couple of years now.

Almost 3 years ago I was fitting kitchens and bathrooms and enjoying making bits and bobs in my well equipped workshop. I bought a brand new Transit and at 58 years old was hoping to work until 70.

Then one day I woke with double vision, the GP sent me to an optician who put it down to tired muscles but no diagnosis why. The night before my return appointment with the GP I was out for a meal and the food kept falling out of my mouth, I had no control.

The next day the GP rushed me to hospital suspecting a stroke. A day of tests proved this not to be the case. A second day of tests diagnose Myasthenia Gravis (MG). It's an autoimmune disease. My immune system thinks that the electronic messages sent from brain to muscle are invaders an stops them getting there. It's rare and more common in women.

I managed to continue working for about 10 months just doing odd jobs and on ever increasing medication. At the 10 month stage I had a major crash and have not recovered. I ended up in resus twice unable to breathe and have spent many weeks on and off in a specialist hospital. My beloved Transit had to be sold and all my gear put in storage. My workshop has been idle ever since.

I have a mobility scooter which was great for 6 months but unfortunately I can no longer use it as I have no strength or breath when I get to where I'm going. I have a stairlift and am at the stage where I get completely breathless just walking across the room. I'm also extremely weak and fatigued all the time.

It's not terminal, but there is no cure. The strong medication (steroids as well as others) will probably do for me in the end, they have so many side effects and do so much damage to various organs. But without them I'm not likely to be able to get out of bed.

The reason I tell you this is that for 2 years I've been hoping for some sort of recovery so that I can at least go in the workshop. It's unlikely now that this will happen so I'll be selling all my gear. I'll be posting various items on here as and when I have the energy to get out there and take photo's.

If you've got this far, thanks for reading, enjoy every minute of every day because you don't know what tomorrow may bring.
 
I am very glad to see you posting again graham and even more saddened to hear of the really tough time you have had. I wish you all the best and hope that you are able to continue to enjoy taking part in the forum and offering advice when you can.
 
Thank you. The internet has saved my sanity. I talk to folks around the world and am ever entertained by YouTube. I'll be on here re-establishing connections too.
 
I am so sorry to hear about your circumstances Graham. We do take our good health for granted until we lose it. I sincerely hope things work out as well as they can for you.
 
Thank you, and yes we do. My best friend is 3 days older than me and still races a motocross bike. Everyone tells him at 61 he's too old and should stop before he gets a serious injury. He refuses and cites me as his reason why.
 
Graham, my thoughts are with you. Your situation makes those of us griping (yes, I include myself) about things back into perspective.

All the very best.

Roger
 
Very sorry to hear this, it must be incredibly frustrating. I hope you are able to find a suitable outlet for your creative talents that doesn't require the physical effort. Have you thought about learning to paint or maybe even a miniature CNC machine?
 
RogerS":3tx10u0u said:
Graham, my thoughts are with you. Your situation makes those of us griping (yes, I include myself) about things back into perspective.

All the very best.

Roger
Thank you Roger.
 
Thank you for posting Graham, it can't be easy to open up on your personal tragedy and it's a really sobering story which has to bring us down to earth with a huge bump. We all take our health for granted until something gives us a kick up the backside.

Best wishes to you for the future and welcome back, I remember reading many of your posts over the years.

Bob
 
Hi Graham,

Sorry to hear about your circumstances. I do hope that going forward everything goes as well as it can. I'm glad this forum is here, with the friendly folks it has, to keep us connected.
 
Goodness me. Sorry to hear this Graham, and I wish you all the best with managing your illness. Of course, you don't have to be an active woodworker to post here, so take the opportunity of having a chat with some people who have at least a little in common with you.
 
VERY sorry to read your story Graham, and along with everyone else, I wish you the best possible outcome - I'm sure that with enough "lateral thinking" you'll be able to find some doable pass time to put your talents back into train - at the very least it's great that you're back here and so able to steer non-woodworker woodworking idiots like me back onto the right path ;-)

A couple of people have already touched on it above, but just to confirm my own thoughts, it's very good that you have the courage to tell your story here. At least that reminds others (like me especially) that although we have more than enough medical troubles of our own, seeing someone infinitely worse off means we can (re)learn to remember that no matter how bad our own problems there's always someone else who's worse off.

All the very best to you and welcome back.
 
MikeG.":2l4jzk2a said:
Goodness me. Sorry to hear this Graham, and I wish you all the best with managing your illness. Of course, you don't have to be an active woodworker to post here, so take the opportunity of having a chat with some people who have at least a little in common with you.

Thanks for the encouragement Mike. I will certainly do that.
 
So sorry to hear your news Graham. It must be very difficult not to be able to continue your craft and being unable to get out and about. Maybe try a few hobbies that you can do at home without much effort. In the winter I go back to doing jigsaws when it is too cold to venture out in the shed. YouTube is also a source of inspiration. Good luck for the future.
Regards Keith
 
Woodchips2":2xq8hok3 said:
So sorry to hear your news Graham. It must be very difficult not to be able to continue your craft and being unable to get out and about. Maybe try a few hobbies that you can do at home without much effort. In the winter I go back to doing jigsaws when it is too cold to venture out in the shed. YouTube is also a source of inspiration. Good luck for the future.
Regards Keith
Thankyou Keith. I've been through the jigsaw stage and sketching! I'm in the middle of the scale model aircraft stage but had to stop for the time being because my hands shake a lot.
YouTube is a fantastic source of entertainment no matter what the subject. We have 3 different TV platforms and I'd rather watch YT.
 
Nice to see you back posting Graham. I echo the sentiments above; I am shocked by your news and sympathise with your steroids catch-22 scenario, SWMBO has that conundrum too.
An old saying: "when one door closes, another opens", so I hope you can progress the model building or summat similar. What about marquetry? Flat, you get support from the work surface, small pieces, non-critical glue times?

Sam
 
SammyQ":5xnqh475 said:
Nice to see you back posting Graham. I echo the sentiments above; I am shocked by your news and sympathise with your steroids catch-22 scenario, SWMBO has that conundrum too.
An old saying: "when one door closes, another opens", so I hope you can progress the model building or summat similar. What about marquetry? Flat, you get support from the work surface, small pieces, non-critical glue times?

Sam
Thanks Sam. That's worth thinking about. I'm sorry your wife's going through it, hope she takes an upturn. I really believe the steroids do as much damage as they help fix things.
Graham
 

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