What is a bad day?

You may wonder how can you really have a bad day with a stroke survivor when they are as miraculous as my husband as far as recovery goes.  I think “bad day” is with air quotes around it because it could mean literally an endless number of things.

So I am not sure if I would categorize anything as a “bad day” unless we ended up back in the hospital.  But we just got the 3rd round of labs and Family Dr , Dentist, Glaucoma specialist and everything is good.  His eyes are good, no pain, sleeping well, keeping the weight off , A1C down able to laugh and live life.

We went to Target to pick up a RX and some milk.  Pretty benign sounding afternoon right?  We were in and out quickly at the Pharmacy and our son wanted to wander looking at DVD’s.  Off we went my husband pushing the cart and seemingly happily wandering with me.  We were looking for a new basket for his bedside table because the one he had was falling apart.

This was a guy who could look at something and come close to the exact dimensions just in his head.  I picked up a wire basket, he shook his head NO, picked up a cloth one and he laughed too big.  The next one he got a pained look on his face and lifted his hands to his head.  I can’t think about it, it is too hard.  And that was it folks.

I said let’s go home, he said no let’s wander. We wasted another 20 minutes and I picked up a tank top on clearance for $2.40!

We got home and I sat next to him, he started talking about the ladies at Target that confused him when he heard their voices.  That he did not know what to do in that situation.  He began to cry.  Is this a “Bad Day” I am still not sure.  I tried to figure out what happened but the rest of the day was very difficult and he was melancholy.

It was 6:30 pm and he announced he was going to bed.  I said you can go to bed but it is too early for your medicine so I will wake you up to take it in a couple of hours.  He sat back down and continued to be upset.  He later poured water from a bottle on his feet thinking it was lotion and then laid on the bed and cried when I explained what happened.

I mean water WHO CARES!!!  I tried to let him know it did not make any difference it was just his brain getting confused but he was still there and getting better every day.

Is this a bad day? When I could finally wipe the tears away and hold him tight and profess my love for him?  It just can’t be a bad day when he is still there to hugged and comforted.  When he can hug me back and say he loves me.  This cannot be a bad day.

So in conclusion I am not sure it is possible to have a bad day on this road to recovery.