Day: July 15, 2005

Today has been really strange. Howard began the day loopy and spent most of it sleeping or wandering around in a zombified state. He needed me a lot. Mostly he just needed me to be with him, which was kind of nice. I like being needed by Howard, he’s grateful and considerate, unlike the mostly gratitudeless kids. Oh, occasionally I get hugs, kisses, and ‘love you’s from kids but they’re generally significantly detached from the demands. Howard not only needed me, he also took care of me by placing a call to our local relief society to arrange for dinner. He did it during one of his lucid moments which is probably fortunate considering the amusing wierd things he said during less lucid moments. I’m lucky to have him and I’m sad he’s hurt.

At one point Howard was so sick of being housebound that he wandered out the front door. About 20 minutes later I got a phone call from a neighbor letting me know that Howard had just left her house and was continueing to wander the neighborhood. I had an amusing mental picture of a string of phone calls from neighbors all telling me where my drugged-up husband was. It didn’t happen that way, Howard wandered home all by himself which was good. I really didn’t want him collapsing somewhere or getting confused and lost. (I was pretty sure he’d be fine, but the thought crossed my mind.)

Gleek got bored and picked fights with Patches. I was really tired, but managed to sneak a nap by making the kids watch too many videos. (I couldn’t send them outside in 100 degree heat.) In all it wasn’t really a day that I care to repeat, but I’m not sorry to have had it.

At 6 am this morning Howard woke me up because he was in pain. I helped him to the kitchen and doled out a muscle relaxant and two loritab tablets. The loritab dosage was a mistake because 30 minutes later Howard about fell over out of his office chair. Since then he has been alternately loopy and asleep. There have been some very funny moments when Howard tried to overcome loopiness with sheer will power. He sat at the kitchen table looking like death-warmed-over and giving me a list of things he needed me to do. Normally he’s very precise and articulate, but during the conversation he fell asleep no less than 3 times and didn’t even know he had done it. At one point he asked confusedly:
“What’s that noise?”
“That would be my pencil writing the list.”
He then looked at me in wide eyed wonder “It’s so fast!”

I’ve put him to bed to sleep off the drugs. Hopefully coherence will return sometime this afternoon. The really good news is that he does seem to have a full range of motion with his arm. Any movement hurts, but all movements are possible which is reassuring. I don’t know when he’ll be fit to draw again. Certainly not today, but I have hopes that a haitus will not be necessary.