Watery Eyes

This afternoon the Lewy Body fluctuation was in clarity mode. The sad clarity. I looked over at Craig and his eyes were filled with tears. Oh how my heart breaks over and over again. As much as I try to protect him from everything painful, Lewy Body is cruel; pure evil. In many ways I wish he did have Alzheimer's as it would spare him the reality of his situation. 

I reached over and hugged and kissed him and attempted to reassure him that everything was going to be alright; that I am taking good care of him and he turned and looked me in the eye and said, "I know you are". Now I was the one with tears in my eyes. What to do in this situation? Distraction. Most times it works. Not usually when he is in an angry hallucination but in this case I was hoping distraction would work. Thank God it was a warm, sunny day today. I asked him if he'd like to go outside for awhile. He nodded and outside we went. Craig immediately perked up. I asked him if he'd like some lemonade, "yah, that'd be good." Lemonade it is!  (For those of you who haven't visited Craig in awhile, these sentences are very rare and absolute music to our ears.)

                                

After a bit I asked him if he'd like to go for a walk, "sure!" So off we went up the sidewalk I had put in to accommodate his wheelchair and up the lane.

Craig was SO happy to be out of the house, outside in the fresh air and going for a walk. 

What a beautiful day. (Pictures on Facebook.)

Mission accomplished.

As I've written about before, bedtime is the sweetest time with Craig. Every night I tell him the caregiver is leaving to go home and he maybe tells them goodnight. Then I remind him that I stay with him and that "my bed is right over there. If you need me or anything just call out to me". He usually just smiles his big, beautiful Craig smile and says "oh good!" Since he's been home he has not called out to me until the other night. "Heeeey! Heeey!" he called out for my attention. I got up to see what he wanted. "Talk to me".  He did this a couple of times that night, I made conversation out of telling him about the boys, family and friends and after the second time I was so tired I finally had to tell him I needed sleep and he needed to go to sleep too. "Oh, okay. Goodnight." Too sweet! I wouldn't trade these moments for the world. They are my dearest treasures these days.

We recently had him tested again for diabetes and this time it came up positive. It explains the pressure blisters for no reason (no pressure on his feet) among other things. One of his caregivers has a fabulous, easy remedy for them. Where it took weeks for one to heal outside of the home we now have them buttoned up literally within a day or two. Then, the top of his right foot kept swelling with fluid overnight. One evening while putting him to bed it occurred to me that we still have a "boot" that the hospital put on his feet when it was discovered he had a pressure blister upon arrival in the ER in September. I took one of the boots and put it on his right foot to hold it vertical during his sleep. The next morning, VIOLA! no more fluid swelling in his foot. I love it when God whispers to me. 

My darling husband has maybe another year and God so help me it'll be the BEST I can make it for him.