Lewy was feeling pretty good today. His Parkinson symptoms were minimal, which means he was mobile. The only problem was; Lewy was navigating. Getting him up and out of his chair takes the assistance of a walker (“scaffolding” to Lewy), and every ounce of my body weight leaning on the scaffolding to be a counterbalance for Lewy.
Lewy decided he wanted to get up from his chair. As usual, I waited for him to ask for help. His issues with rigidity were not overtly present. Lewy had just forgotten how to stand up. He rocked back and forth for minutes on end thinking the next rock will propel him upward. When I gave him the walker, he just fliped it back on himself. If I tried to leverage him by holding onto his wrists and leaning backwards, he leaned backwards to prevent me from falling. Needless to say no one managed to go anywhere.
“Daddy…Daddy…..Daddy…look at me. Look at me. Daddy, look at me”. I get a blank stare from Lewy. “Daddy spread your feet apart”. I reach down with my foot and spread his feet so each one is properly aligned with his hips. Lewy looks at the floor.
“Daddy, look at me”. Lewy looks up, but never makes eye contact. “Daddy?” I wave my hands in front of his eyes to get his attention. “Put your hands here on the scaffolding. No, here. Here…I have to pick up both hands and place them in their proper positions on the walker. Lewy dropped his hands to the back side of the scaffolding and started pulling. “No Daddy, put your hands here. You have to get your hands up here for the leverage”.
“I know how to work this thing!” Lewy rattled the scaffolding and jerked it back on himself repeatedly, until he got too tired to do it anymore. I repositioned the walker, took his hands and placed them on the scaffolding for Lewy. “Daddy, lean forward.” Lewy stiff armed the walker pushing it backwards towards me. “No Daddy, bend your arms, then lean forward.” A compound command is often too much for Lewy to deal with. After several tries and me pushing on the inside of his elbow and commanding “bend your arm, bend your arm”, he gets that light bulb going and bends his arms.
“Now lean forward”. No, forward. Lean towards me.”
“But I’ll push you over.”
“No, I’ll be fine. Come on Daddy, lean forward……lean….forward.” Lewy leans backwards. “No Daddy lean towards me”, I say as I grab him by the collar and pull him forward. “Now, push with your legs. PUSH….PUSH"…I feel like I'm a coaching a birth…."Come on Daddy, you have to push up with your legs at the same time as you lean forward.”
Finally after several rockings and explanations why it won’t work and why I’m telling him wrong, he finally gets tired enough to humor me and do it my way. Low and behold, he stands right up. Not a problem.
“See Daddy, if you do it the way I asked you to, it’s easier to stand up.”
“Well! You didn’t explain it clear enough. I didn’t know you wanted me to stand up.”
“You are the one that wanted to stand up!” I forgot I was talking to Lewy.
“So, where are you going?” I asked Lewy.
“I’m going to sit down right here.”