Today was an amazing day for Daddy. He was up walking around without his walker or his cane. He was getting up and down out of his chair with almost no assistance. Other than being a tad confused once, he was mentally clear all day until after dinner, when Lewy showed up.
Lewy’s entrance was not as dramatic as it can be. He just sort of slipped in through the back door when we weren’t looking.
Months ago when Lewy would try to manipulate with his hands what he was seeing in his hallucinations, Hubbie and I would get each others attention and we would direct the other to see what Lewy was up to. But these episodes of fiddling in mid air occur so often now, we both watch out of the corners of our eyes and never say a word. We just watch.
Lewy was laying back in his recliner sleeping pretty well when his face contorted such that he appeared to be terrible pain. He raised up his right hand and started a rapid tapping motion with all his fingers in mid air. Then he raised his left hand, opened his eyes and stared directly at whatever his fingers were rapidly working over. Thirty seconds later Lewy was sleeping peacefully again.
I yelled at the TV basketball game (I tend to do that a lot) and woke Lewy from his nap. “When are we leaving here?”
“We’re not going anywhere Daddy. We’re watching the ball game.”
“You said to go get dressed and ready to go.”
“No I didn’t. You’ve been dreaming.”
Lewy looked straight through me. You know how you can tell where a person is focused? He was looking through me to a point I‘d guess about 10 feet behind me. Something was definitely going on in the next room. His eyes followed what he was seeing fly about the room. I returned to my basketball.
Eventually, Lewy went back to sleep. The basketball game was not going very well at all. Again I hollered at the TV. Lewy woke up. “Are you going to come put on my dress clothes for me?”
“No, I’m watching the ball game”.
“You said you were going to help me get dressed. I have to get my dress clothes on!”
“No you don’t Daddy. Were not going anywhere.”
“We’re not going dancing?” You could hear the disappointment in his voice; his face dropped. “I don’t know why you said you would then umnumnumm.”
Its later now, the game was lost and Lewy called for me. Nothing he was saying was making any sense. I couldn’t get a single word out of the mumbling. “Do you want to get up?” “Yes.”
Today, he was getting up so easy. Now he has made me step away from the walker where I use my weight as a counterbalance for him to stand up. He’s in there rocking the walker back and forth back and forth.
Once again he has forgotten how to stand up, but there’s either pride or stubbornness, I’m not sure which, that makes him refuse my help. So he rocks. Lewy gains leverage that way, or at least he thinks he does. Mostly he just rocks.