text:  Right away, Grant started to write. And as he was writing, his health began to deteriorate. Over the next eight months, he continued to write as he was in great physical pain. Soon, he was struggling to swallow and his weight plummeted. He was struggling to speak. He got to the point that he could no longer dictate his memoirs. So he had to write his thoughts and his memoirs by hand. After a while, his doctors started to grow concerned that writing the memoirs were the only thing that were keeping Grant alive.