One Year On

Well I made it. I've kept this blog going for a whole year. 166 posts, well over 90,000 words, over 2,600 individual visitors and a whole heap of comments. And that's just here on the 'mother-site' so to speak. I've lost track of all the Disaboom readers, let alone those who follow it on Facebook. All told I reckon around 2,000 people read these words every month.

I've enjoyed writing these posts over the last year and have, like most bloggers, particularly enjoyed and appreciated any comments I've received. It's nice to know there are people out in the blogosphere actually reading this stuff and who are prepared to take time to write and provide feedback. So thank you if you have been one of them.

I set out writing How To Be An Inspiration because I wanted to chart the ups and downs of day to day life living with FSH Muscular Dystrophy whilst at the same time living with (and indeed within) a family. Looking back a lot has happened and a lot has changed over the course of the last year. I had a quick glance at the first post and was transported back to a time of chickenpox and marathons, but also a time when I was transferring myself from bed to wheelchair and from wheelchair to toilet. I had dexterity enough to manipulate a stylus to write this blog with a handwriting recognition programme rather than picking it out one letter at a time on an on-screen keyboard as I am now. I had a whole different team of carers who only came in the morning rather than morning, nights, some lunchtimes, some teatimes, some afternoons and sometimes all through the night. In terms of the Muscular Dystrophy it's been a year of rapid deterioration, one of the worse I can remember. Fortunately I don't have to define my life solely in terms of my disability. Polly and the boys give me both purpose and happiness and are the true measure of how my life is going.

Today is Easter Sunday and I'm writing this whilst watching Jonny Depp as Willy Wonka on TV with Sam. Matty is happily playing on the computer and Polly is pottering in the kitchen. All in all it is a very normal family scene.