Happy Dreams

What an awful night! (That’s not the nicest way to begin a posting, so I will start over.)

Hi everybody. (Oops, maybe there are just a couple readers today. Everybody makes it sound as if I have a fan club of millions ready to pounce on every word. Not! It should maybe be more personal too!)

I hope this day finds you with a happy heart. (That’s better. OK)

What an awful night! Part of this whole LBD is another acronym designated as REM-BD. (Could we exist even a week without using an acronym? Give it a try! Remember – no TV. It’s television. I’m really ADD today. I’ll start over.)

One of the main purposes of this blog is to inform others about some of our chronic conditions. Since Bob has been diagnosed with Lewy Bodies Dementia – LBD – that has been my primary focus. A major symptom is REM-BD. We had a whole trip up to Mayo so they could ascertain the current significance of this with Bob. An earlier posting describes this in much more detail, but he was just like your naughty car that when taken to the dealer performs in stellar behavior. Well, Bob’s sleep up in Rochester wasn’t stellar by any mean, however it didn’t show the doctors enough “data.”

REM-BD is kind of like night terrors with toddlers. On top of that, the dreams are also acted out. A patient’s muscles actually move and run and cower as if they were awake. Bob does not have them every night, but when he has them, they last practically the whole night. I was told by Mayo doctors to not wake him, but let one nightmare continue. The hope was that if one horrid dream would run a cycle, there would just be that one nightmare and not an entire evening of crud.

I couldn’t do it! I tried, but it is so horrifying to watch your loved one cower there screaming, begging for help. His pillowcase was literally drenched while the sheet was tightly twisted in his clenched hands. His muscle tone was so tight that I couldn’t budge his hands away from his face. Einstein was throwing his poor little body against the door as he did all he could to get to his master.

The long dream continued all night as the minutes slowly ticked by. I need to stay in the room for sometimes he sleepwalks or throws things about. I have to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself in his efforts to rid himself of his demented devils. I couldn’t take it any longer so I woke him twice. He tried to stand in our shower to wash away some of the remnants, but he would only return to that same nightmare almost as soon as his eyes were closed. It’s easy to understand why LBD patients are frequently up all night, refusing to even attempt any slumber.

I feel like I failed since I held him in my arms and finally woke him on those two occasions. Maybe I should have let things transpire so the wee hours of the morning could have been restful. We go to one of Bob’s fifty million specialists on Wednesday and can hopefully get some advice and medication either for him or me so it can somehow allow a quieter evening.

The horrors of LBD are just beginning. Through the prayer of friends, family and our virtual supporters, we will make it over this hurdle. Please pray for both Bob and I as tonight we lay our heads to slumber. Dreams about our happy grandsons and walking hand in hand on the beach will be much preferred.  Ahhhh! Life is good! People will help us get through this and we will do it together!

God Uses Our Love to Prove that Life is Good

         There is nothing like a loved one to help you get through some tough times!