Shortly after posting my thoughts on "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", a flick that I could not watch because its stroke victim hero was just a little too close for comfort, I received this note from Richard Greener, an old friend and novelist who after receiving a new heart underwent an extended period of paralysis. Fortunately, he is okay now.
--- I haven't seen it and probably won't, for the same reasons you suggested, but your brief description reminded me of my own difficulties editing my second novel while paralyzed in the hospital. I could only move my head. Maria had a system installed whereby I could push a feather-weight, flat metal plate with the right side of my head and activate a tape recorder. If someone turned the pages of my manuscript for me, I could then dictate indicating line number, paragraph and word to spot changes I wanted to make or to answer question my editor had asked. All communication was between my editor and my wife. Maureen, my editor, would send her comments/questions via email and Maria would then relate them with page, paragraph, etc. After dictating my changes or explanations, Maria would take the tape and translate it to email form to send on to Maureen. Toward the very end of this process I was able to sit in a wheelchair and the index finger on my right hand was responding well enough to turn the recorder on and off. But I needed the recorder to be affixed to my right hand otherwise it would slip away an inch or two and that was too far for me to retrieve it. I remember thinking that I would try to write another novel using this process and actually looking forward to it. I had no hope of recovery at the time. I thought I would spend the rest of my life hospitalized and paralyzed, tube fed and diapered. I owe everything to Maria who always said, even in the darkest days, that this was all temporary. I'm so lucky.
